Phl shooting champ’s alleged killer caught

MANILA, Philippines - A suspected hired killer, linked to the 2011 murder of international shooting champion Michael Lontoc, was arrested in Malabon City Saturday afternoon.

Jimmy Dadison Pianiar, alias Toto, was arrested at the Palaisdaan Picnic Garden at past 3 p.m. by police officers from the Regional Intelligence Unit (RIU) of the National Capital Region (NCR), according to Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Chief Superintendent Generoso Cerbo Jr.

Pianiar, listed among the PNP Intelligence Group’s most wanted persons, is a “suspect in the celebrated Lontoc murder case. He was reportedly a member of a partisan group and engaged in gun-for-hire activity. He is now undergoing documentation and tactical interrogation at RIU-NCR headquarters,” Cerbo said.

Lontoc had just won in a shooting competition in Malabon on Sept. 25, 2011 and was on his way to a meeting when he was ambushed by four armed men in Barangay Tenejeros.

Lontoc was supposed to be one of the country’s representatives at the International Practical Shooting Confederation World Shooting Championship in Rhodes, Greece from Oct. 3 to 9, 2011.