3 angles eyed in Batangas vice mayor's murder

MANILA, Philippines - Police officers are pursuing three angles in the murder of Talisay, Batangas Vice Mayor Florencio Manimtim Jr., who died of gunshot wounds Monday, three days after being attacked at a Pasay City mall.

“We have no progress as yet in our investigation in the case of Vice Mayor Manimtim but we are looking into politics, money and woman angles,” said Director Alan Purisima, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

Purisima said the Special Investigation Task Group Manimtim – headed by Senior Superintendent Federico Castro, deputy chief for operations of the Southern Police District (SPD) – is working on the case.

He said several teams from the SPD and the Pasay City police were dispatched to several areas in Metro Manila and nearby provinces to coordinate with other police units for the identification and arrest of his killers.

The NCRPO chief directed Castro and Senior Superintendent Melchor Reyes, Pasay City police chief, to leave no stone unturned in solving the murder of Manimtim.

Purisima is confident that Reyes could solve the Manimtim case as his killing was caught on video by the mall’s surveillance camera.

Manimtim reportedly met with his lawyers in a restaurant at a Pasay City mall last Friday to discuss a pending election protest. As he was walking toward his car at the corner of Harbor Drive and Sunset Avenue, a gunman shot him three times, then walked to a waiting motorcycle driven by an accomplice. Security guards tried but failed to catch them.

Manimtim underwent surgery at the San Juan de Dios Hospital but died at around 3:22 a.m. Monday.

Last August, Manimtim survived being shot in the head by unidentified attackers while he was attending the funeral of a relative.