Phones key to anti-PDAF crusader’s slay

DINGALAN, Aurora, Philippines – Police are checking the contents of three mobile phones of slain anti-pork barrel crusader Quintin “Ting” San Diego to solve his murder.

Inspector Desiree Buluag, officer-in-charge of the Dingalan police, said they have submitted the phones to the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Cybercrime Group at Camp Crame for examination.

Buluag hopes the phones will provide vital evidence that can lead to the capture of the killers.

San Diego, 74, founding chairman of the Movement Against Dynasty (MAD), was shot dead in November last year at his resort in Barangay Caragsacan in this town.

San Diego, who ran but lost in the mayoralty race in 2001, was the son of the late Lourdes Babila Paredes, the first female justice of the Court of Appeals and who, as a Regional Trial Court judge, convicted the rapists of actress Maggie dela Riva.

Police are looking into several motives for the killing, including San Diego’s refusal to pay revolutionary taxes to the New People’s Army, an old grudge and his advocacy work with MAD.

Buluag said they have the sketches of the gunman and another suspect, although they have yet to be identified. She said they have five witnesses, including San Diego’s driver and personal assistant.

A special investigation task group led by provincial police director Senior Superintendent Danilo Florentino has been formed to solve the killing.

Case investigator Senior Police Officer 2 Wilfredo Basbas said the San Diego family no longer seems to be interested in pursuing the case and it is MAD that has been exerting efforts to attain justice.