Pagadian vice mayor tagged in trader’s slay

ZAMBOANGA CITY — A self-confessed assassin has tagged the vice mayor of Pagadian City as the alleged mastermind of the 2004 gunslaying of the proprietor of a Jollibee branch, the lawyer of the victim’s family said yesterday.

Lawyer Leonardo de Vera, legal counsel of the family of the victim, Alexander Chan, said in a press conference that the gunman, Jerry Laride, 33, has implicated Pagadian Vice Mayor Romeo Polmones in the killing.

The media tried to get Polmones’ side but he could not be reached. The vice mayor has reportedly hired former Solicitor General Frank Chavez as legal counsel.

Chan, proprietor of the Jollibee branch in Pagadian City, was gunned down on Oct. 10, 2004 while he was attending Mass at the Alliance Church.

In an extrajudicial confession, Laride, assisted by lawyer Norberto Buenaventura, claimed that he was paid P200,000 to kill Chan.

After 15 months in hiding, Laride was captured by combined forces of the Military Intelligence Group-9, Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Regional Intelligence Group-9.

Laride, who is now detained at the MIG-9 facility at the Armed Forces Southern Command headquarters here, confessed that he was hired to kill Chan because Polmones allegedly had suspicions that his wife was having an illicit affair with the businessman.

Laride, a tricycle driver who supposedly later became a bodyguard of Polmones, claimed that two of the vice mayor’s close aides closely coordinated with him.

Laride alleged that he later met with Polmones at the oval grounds in the San Francisco district in Pagadian City where the latter supposedly gave him P40,000 as an advance payment.

Laride claimed that they followed Chan twice in early September 2004 before they finally carried out the murder.

Quoting Laride’s confession, De Vera said Laride shot Chan in the head inside the church and after the businessman slumped on his seat, fired at him thrice to finish him off.

De Vera further quoted Laride as disclosing that he was later paid an additional P20,000 and was told to hide and bring along the murder weapon — a caliber .45 pistol.

De Vera said ballistic tests showed that the slug found in Chan’s body and the ammunition of the caliber .45 pistol matched.

"We have a big chance to send the mastermind to jail. If we lose Laride, we will lose the case," he said.

De Vera said Laride has expressed fear for his life, claiming that there had been attempts to silence him.

A third party supposedly tried to convince Laride’s wife to file an affidavit alleging that her husband was tortured into owning up to the killing, he said.

Dante Jimenez, chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption who accompanied De Vera during the press conference, commended the police and the military for Laride’s arrest.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales has sent two state prosecutors to talk to Laride and re-examine his affidavit and see if there is already a probable cause to warrant the filing of charges in court.