Tadao slay: New leads?

Authorities said yesterday that property claims could be a possible motive behind the killing of world-renowned jazz artist Tadao Hayashi.

This, after the principal suspect in the brutal slay, Alex Ilagan, 32, Hayashi’s reported friend, ex-lover, and masseur, was arrested the other day in Floodway, Pasig City.

Ilagan was charged by the Caloocan Prosecutor’s Office last yesterday. The prosecutor recommended no bail for the accused.

Caloocan City police Station Investigation and Intelligence Division (SIID) chief Superintendent Dionicio Borromeo confirmed reports that Hayashi’s house and lot located at Block 1, Lot 2, LD Village, Barangay Tala, Caloocan is in the name of the jazz artist’s personal assistant, Antonio Clet.

Clet said that he tried to call up Hayashi twice at around 9 p.m. on the day he died but there was no answer. Police said the musician was killed between 8 and 10 p.m.

Clet added that he suspected Hayashi had either gone out and was robbed or something had happened inside the house. He then called up Hayashi’s manager, Noel Salonga of First Name Entertainment and Management, Inc., who instructed him to call a barangay tanod the following day, which he did.

Clet said he did not try to break into Hayashi’s house, knowing fully well that he could leave fingerprints in the place.

Ilagan, who denied killing Hayashi, earlier hinted that there was a deeper motive behind the slay and said that Clet could be involved.

He recalled that he and Clet had a slight misunderstanding over Hayashi’s blue Lite-Ace van which the musician was selling. "Clet was insistent that Hayashi sell the van to his (Clet) buyer, presumably to get the commission. I had my own buyer, too," Ilagan said.

Ilagan had admitted that he and Hayashi had a brief sexual relationship but remained friends after it ended. He said he had no reason to kill Hayashi because the musician had been "very kind" to him and his family.

Charges of robbery with homicide have been filed against Ilagan with the city prosecutor’s office.

Borromeo said Hayashi’s family had given the Caloocan police a special power of attorney to investigate the killing. Hayashi’s family yesterday left for Japan with the slain musician’s cremated remains. – Jerry Botial