Arrested in Carcar: Ex-Army Ranger held in Jore slay

CEBU, Philippines – A former Army Scout Ranger who reportedly now makes a living selling bolos in Carcar was arrested yesterday in connection with the February 17 killing of convenience store owner Lalaine Jore in Cebu City.

Police from Cebu City led by Chief Inspector George Ylanan arrested Filomeno Amistad at around 4 p.m. in barangay Dapdap in Carcar following tips on his presence there.

Amistad was reportedly the man caught in a video footage from a security camera installed inside the convenience store and internet café owned by Jore at Krizia Building on Gorordo Avenue.

Amistad quickly denied any hand in the brutal killing of Jore, 34, who was shot several times while manning her store early that fateful night.

The recently retired soldier said he could not have been the man caught by the camera because he was in Manila at the time to process his retirement benefits.

Amistad, who was surprised by the policemen in his home, did not resist arrest.

It was not clear if Ylanan and his men were armed with a warrant for the arrest of Amistad.

A report on DYSS Super Radyo merely said Ylanan and his team made the arrest while conducting a “hot pursuit operation.”

The term “hot pursuit operation” became controversial only very recently when police, also led by Ylanan, arrested pastor Leonardo Jastiva, in connection with the kidnapping and murder of his own wife, Judith.

Police arrested Jastiva without a warrant, claiming the police action was a “hot pursuit operation.”

But the court, ruling on a habeas corpus petition, ordered the release of Jastiva from jail, calling his warrantless arrest illegal. The court shot down the “hot pursuit” justification by the police, saying a considerable length of time already lapsed between the kidnapping and murder and the arrest of Jastiva to sustain the principle.

Despite the setback in the Jastiva case, police believe they can hang on this time to Amistad on the same “hot pursuit” principle.

Police believe Amistad and the two other suspects in the Jore killing are professional hitmen although they have not yet determined their links to any other similar jobs.

Investigators have considered the killing of Jore as business related although they have not ruled out other angles.

Jore died in the hospital from multiple gunshot wounds, apparently from a .45 caliber pistol, in the head and body.

Initial findings showed that the suspects had been frequenting the store of Jore several days before she was attacked.

On the night she was killed, two of the suspects went through the motions of buying six bottles of beer while the third waited outside on a motorcycle.

After paying for the beer, the two men went outside to join the third, and there they started drinking. But a few minutes later, the two men went back inside and there shot Jore, who was at the time seated beside her cashier.

The suspects fled with their waiting companion, leaving the cashier unharmed, and the day’s sales intact. — /JST (THE FREEMAN)