‘Brains’ in Chika slay still nameless

The brains behind the brutal slay of former Manila councilor Chika Go last month seems to be as slippery as an eel.

This after probers of the case admitted they have no choice but wait for Victor Macaldo, the alleged gunman who shot Go, to finally name the man who hired him to do the killing.

"We cannot really force him to admit being the hitman, much more pressure him to identify the person who paid him to do the job," said a case investigator from the Western Police District (WPD).

Though, investigators said Macaldo bragged to arresting officers of being the one who shot Go in the afternoon of Aug. 10, he stopped talking when placed under formal investigation.

Probers also admit that their presentation of Macaldo to President Arroyo after his arrest even served as a major stumbling block to their investigation as Macaldo had started to refuse to cooperate.

"We planned to keep Macaldo’s arrest a secret in order to squeeze every available information from him. But we were ordered by our higher-ups to present him before the President. He (Macaldo) later decided to shut up," said an investigator.

Macaldo is still detained at the integrated jail of the WPD following the filing of a string of charges against him.

Aside from his involvement in Go’s murder in Binondo, Manila, Macaldo is also facing a possible murder charge for alleged involvement in the killing of a certain Jaime Casela in Las Piñas City last Aug. 8.

Macaldo was allegedly involved in the robbery of a gas station in Sta. Mesa, Manila which resulted in the death of a member of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group. For that, he is now facing robbery with homicide charges.

Manila policemen are also closely checking if Macaldo is also behind the killing of Bureau of Internal Revenue examiner Graciano Balubal on Aug. 20 in San Pablo City, Laguna, and in the murder of radio newscaster Sonny Alcantara two days later also in San Pablo.

Macaldo was arrested by elements of the WPD’s intelligence unit inside the comfort room of the Jollibee fastfood branch in Tayuman, Sta. Cruz on the night of Aug. 31. Seized from him was a 9 mm pistol and a caliber .22 handgun fitted with a silencer.

According to SPO4 Benjamin Nuguid of the WPD-DPIU, the police arrested Macaldo following a tip from an informant. Macaldo, according Nuguid, was waiting for a contact at the fastfood joint when he was nabbed.

When questioned, Macaldo admitted being a gun-for-hire and also confessed to being the one who assassinated Go. Nuguid said that though Macaldo did not match a police sketch of the gunman, he was positively identified by a witness as the one who shot Go.

Go, 47, who served as a Manila 3rd district councilor from 1992 to 1995, was on board his Mitsubishi Pajero on his way to his condominium along Reina Regente street when he was caught in heavy traffic.

As his van slowed to a stop, a lone assailant walked up to him and opened fire with a caliber .45 pistol. After the shooting, the gunman escaped onboard a motorcycle.

Ironically, the crime scene was just a few meters away from the Binondo police station.

Police said Go, who was seated at the back of his driver, Abel Polancos, 30, had just visited his mother Su Kin Go at the Chinese General Hospital where she was confined.

Go was rushed to the Metropolitan Hospital where he died about an hour later while undergoing surgery for five gunshot wounds in various parts of the body.

Police records showed that it was the second time that Go had been the object of an assassination. On May 21, 2000, Go was also ambushed in Sampaloc, Manila but he was unscathed. The incident left his former driver dead and his daughter wounded.