ANGELES CITY, Philippines – Police now have at least three suspects in the killing last June of a brother of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco and two companions, but have yet to persuade witnesses to testify against them.
Chief Inspector Danilo Mendoza, head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Pampanga, said although the Task Force Tetangco-Yap already has the names of the three suspects, no charges could yet be filed against them as the witnesses were still reluctant to help prosecute them.
“They are all afraid, so we are trying to persuade them to testify with assurances for their safety,” he said.
The bodies of Tetangco’s brother, his friend Florencio Yap and the latter’s aide Dennis Guinto were found in Yap’s sports utility van on a vacant lot in Barangay Pampang this city last June 3.
Police said the three were apparently killed elsewhere the previous night on their way to play poker at the King’s Poker and Sports Club here.
In another development, Mendoza said their investigation showed that the killing of former American policeman James Basham in this city last Sept.19 seemed to have stemmed from a lovers’ quarrel.
Meanwhile, Mendoza said the probe on the murder of Briton ship captain Bruce Anthony Jones last Sept. 21 seems headed toward the victim’s involvement in the smuggling of high-powered firearms off Bataan last year.
Mendoza said that although investigators remain “confident” in solving the Basham case “soon,” he declined to express the same sentiment on the Jones case, which he described as “too deep.”
Jones, Mendoza confirmed, was a state witness in the smuggling case involving a Panama-registered ship which yielded 54 Indonesian-made rifles worth P25 million off the coast of Mariveles in Bataan in July last year.
The arms smuggling case is pending before the Quezon City regional trial court.
Mendoza said the suspects in the Basham killing were not professionals, as shown by the improvised short firearm with Armalite bullet that they used.
“It would seem that the crime had something to do with lovers’ quarrel. Basham had another girlfriend and had quarreled with his wife whom he wanted to leave,” Mendoza said.
In the Jones killing, on the other hand, Mendoza said professional hit men were apparently involved.