MANILA, Philippines — A suspected contract killer linked to the ambush on photojournalist Rene Joshua Abiad is in police custody.
Eduardo Legazpi II, 31, also known as Bingbong, was arrested by operatives of the Quezon City Police District at a cockpit arena in Barangay Tunasan in Muntinlupa City on July 7, QCPD director Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre announced in a press conference yesterday afternoon.
Legazpi was allegedly in possession of a grenade and a .45 caliber handgun at the time of his arrest.
Torre revealed that a former barangay captain from Pasay City, whom he identified only as Nanad, was the mastermind in the attack on Abiad
that left the Remate online photojournalist and some of his relatives wounded and his four-year-old nephew dead in Barangay Masambong on June 29.
Police earlier said the suspects were riding a Toyota Vios and a motorcycle.
“During our investigation, we saw there were two motorcycles,” Torre said in Filipino.
Apart from the former barangay captain, police are hunting down seven other suspects, including a dismissed police officer from Manila whom Torre identified as a certain Oca.
The other suspects were identified only through their aliases as Greg,
Juan, Mata or Alexis, Marlon and SBoy.
Legazpi’s arrest was the culmination of a week-long manhunt that was the result of an in-depth investigation of his activities prior to the ambush on Abiad.
Based on surveillance camera footage obtained by probers, Legazpi and the other suspects escaped from the ambush site in their vehicles by going to the Quezon Avenue Skyway, exiting to San Pedro City in Laguna and proceeding to Magsaysay Road in Muntinlupa.
Torre said QCPD investigators, in coordination with the Southern Police District, tracked down Legazpi with the assistance of a confidential informant.
The attackers allegedly received P100,000 as payment for the ambush, P15,000 of which went to Legazpi.
Based on their investigation, Torre said personal grudge is the likely motive as the former barangay chairman suspected Abiad of being the source of negative information against him.
Legazpi is facing charges of murder and three counts of frustrated murder for the ambush on Abiad and other members of his family.