Manila cops nab suspect in Baseco assassination

The alleged mastermind in the killing of a barangay coordinator in Baseco was arrested by police in Port Area, Manila yesterday.

Suspect Jojie Umandak also a resident of Baseco, Port Area, was tagged by self-confessed gunman Nestor Cuares as the man who hired him to kill someone in Baseco last Jan. 17, said Senior Inspector Alejandro Yanquilling Jr., chief of the Western Police District Homicide Section.

Cuares, 23, admitted he shot Maria Gilbuena, a barangay coordinator who was shot in the head while helping distribute relief goods to families affected by a Jan. 12 fire.

The gunman admitted that Umandak promised him money so he could go back to his hometown in Maguindanao.

However, when Cuares got to Baseco, he killed the wrong target.

"There is proof that the motive was rivalry over the control of payola in the proliferation of illegal activities, including drugs, gun running, buying of stolen goods, guns-for-hire and illegal tapping of water and electricity," Yanquilling said in his two-page report to WPD director Chief Superintendent Pedro Bulaong.

Yanquilling said probers were initially wary of carrying out an operation in Baseco over reports that Umandak maintained his own army and armory inside his house.

"It’s a good thing we arrested the suspect without any resistance," he said.

In Caloocan City, at least 10 men armed with assault rifles carted away a still undetermined amount of cash, valuables and documents inside three steel vaults at a furniture firm in a pre-dawn heist yesterday.

Police said they are now tracking down the suspects who have gone into hiding.

ACR Furniture at 181 8th Avenue, owned by a certain Tony Tan, was robbed at around 2:30 a.m. The suspects, brandishing Armalite rifles barged into the office and disarmed two guards by the entrance.

The suspects carried the three heavy vaults one by one from the fourth floor to a waiting getaway van. They also took one of the firm’s vehicles. — Cecille Suerte Felipe, Jerry Botial