AWOL cop nabbed for media slay try

A breakthrough came in the foiled slay try of a tabloid newsman in Valenzuela City after Caloocan City police operatives bagged yesterday one of three still missing suspects.

Northern Police District (NPD) director Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil identified the suspect as PO1 Ronald Hipolito, 31, detailed at the Manila Police District-Headquarters Support Unit (MPD-HSU) and resident of Camba street, Tondo, Manila.

Bataoil said Hipolito has been absent without official leave (AWOL) since April 2005 and has been disarmed, adding that Senior Superintendent Danilo Abarzosa, MPD chief, has confirmed Hipolito’s suspension.

Hipolito was arrested in Maligaya Park, Camarin, Caloocan City at around 7 p.m. Tuesday by operatives led by Superintendent Napoleon Cuaton, deputy police chief and Station Investigation and Detective Management Bureau (SIDMB) chief, and Chief Inspector Crecensio Galvez, intelligence branch chief.

Cuaton said the arrest was made by virtue of an arrest warrant issued by Manila Metropolitan Court Branch 5 Judge Marlo Maglosa for a separate case of direct assault in Manila on Aug. 6 this year.

In the presentation made before Caloocan City Mayor Enrico Echiverri, Bataoil and other local police officers at City Hall, Bagong Tiktik newsman Roger Panizal, 51, positively identified Hipolito as the man who boarded his tricycle at around 5:15 a.m. of Monday, Aug. 14 and set him up for the kill.

Panizal sustained five gunshot wounds in the head and body, but miraculously survived to tell his story.

Hipolito openly denied Panizal’s accusation although he admitted being a friend and a business associate of the suspected hitman, Jorge Tabora de Jesus alias "Boy Demonyo," 40, a resident of M. Santos street, Santulan, Malabon City.

De Jesus and his brother Jojit, the remaining suspects, are still at large.

Police sources said Hipolito incurred huge debts with De Jesus, who supplied him with tocino and longanisa, which he sold on the side. His services could have been solicited by De Jesus in the slay attempt, police said.

Echiverri, together with Bataoil, commended Senior Superintendent Geronimo Reside, city police chief, Cuaton, Galvez and their men for the suspect’s arrest.

Panizal, also known as "Ka Popoy" among media colleagues for his striking resemblance to the late insurgent leader Filemon "Ka Popoy" Lagman, moonlights as a tricycle driver in Barangay Panghulo, Malabon City, where he lives.

He said he was working the very early morning hours to support his youngest son Aldrin, 21, an electrical engineering graduate of the Technological University of the Philippines (TUP), now preparing for the licensure examinations.

He was ambushed by the suspects at 5:30 a.m. upon reaching Sta. Juliana street, St. Jude Subdivision in neighboring Malinta in Valenzuela City.

He sustained gunshot wounds in the hands and the right shoulder and a graze wound in the left ear after he tried to grab the assailant’s gun upon seeing it being pointed at him.

Motive for the shooting was traced to a row over parking some three weeks earlier. Sources said "Boy Demonyo" was embarrassed after Panizal knocked him out in a fight at the tricycle terminal. He had vowed to get even. — With Pete Laude