Suspect in Capiz slay nabbed

ILOILO CITY — A driver of a provincial board member was arrested in connection with the Dec. 30 killing of a Capiz vice mayor, his security aide and a barangay official, police said.

"The case is 90 percent solved," said Senior Superintendent Reynaldo Rafal, who heads a special task force probing the killing of Tapaz Vice Mayor Victor Gardose, his bodyguard Antonio Gequillo and Barangay Carida chairman Leonardo Jimeno.

Rafal refused to name the arrested suspect, but local radio stations identified him as one Noel Fuentespina, a former Marine said to be a driver of board member Ronaldo Exmundo.

A policeman, PO3 Danilo Gelilang, a bodyguard of Tapaz Mayor Romualdo Exmundo, has been restricted in the provincial police headquarters pending investigation into his possible role in the killing.

Earlier, Mayor Exmundo, Capiz Gov. Vicente Bermejo, the Tapaz municipal council and business community put up a P500,000 reward for the arrest of the killers.

Gardose, Gequillo and Jimeno were shot as they alighted from the vice mayor’s owner-type jeep on the night of Dec. 30. Police believe the gunman was a "professional shooter."