Truck in bar shooting yields no prints

Police were unable to lift a single fingerprint or recover any other piece evidence from the getaway vehicle allegedly used by the gunman in last Thursday’s killing of a director of ABS-CBN in Makati City.

Chief Superintendent Ernesto Belen, director of the crime laboratory of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said a thorough examination of the exterior of the Toyota Hi-Lux yielded negative results.

"So far, our experts failed to find any prints in the outer part of the vehicle as of Sunday night," Belen told The Star.

According to Belen, crime lab experts have shifted their attention to the interior of the vehicle. "Halfway through their search of evidence, they haven’t found anything yet," he said.

Police believe the vehicle was used by the suspect, identified by witnesses as "Oliver Perez," in escaping after shooting dead TV director Luis "Luigi" Santiago, 26, outside the Venezia Bar at Glorietta 2 last Thursday.

Records at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) showed that the vehicle, with license plate XTW 280, was registered to a certain Charito Angeles, who is currently in the US.

Her mother, Estrella, surrendered the vehicle to Chief Superintendent Wilfredo Garcia, director of the Eastern Police District (EPD) last Friday.

Garcia immediately turned over the vehicle to the crime laboratory for a thorough search.

Belen said the final report on their examination of the getaway vehicle will be out either today or tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Garcia said they are still determining whether the suspect’s name is Oliver Perez or Oliver Angeles before filing the case against him in court. "Nothing significant has changed," Garcia told The Star yesterday. "We are still confirming the real identity of the suspect before filing a case against him."

The SPD chief said they are also gathering additional witnesses and evidence to pin down the suspect in court.

Earlier, Garcia said they took statements from Santiago’s father and five witnesses in the incident, some of them responding policemen.

He added that the police artist’s sketch of the gunman resembled "Oliver Perez," a regular customer at the bar.

Manila police chief Director Vidal Querol ordered the Makati City police to expedite their investigation into the killing after the victim’s family expressed disappointment over the slow pace probe of the case.

Querol, however, did not give investigators any deadline.

The gunman went on a shooting spree following a scuffle between female customers inside the bar.

After the protagonists were separated, "Oliver" went to the parking lot where somebody handed him a caliber .45 automatic pistol, police said.

The gunman fired a warning shot in the air before shooting Santiago, who allegedly said something that irked him.

The suspect continued firing, wounding six others, including a police officer.