Love triangle ruled out in Batangas vice mayor's slay

MANILA, Philippines - Police ruled out yesterday the love triangle angle as a possible motive for the murder of Talisay, Batangas Vice Mayor Florencio Manimtim Jr. in Pasay City last Friday.

According to reports circulating in Talisay town, Manimtim maintained two other women aside from his wife, said Senior Superintendent Federico Castro, deputy chief for operations of the Southern Police District (SPD).

“The women knew about each other but there is no friction among them. They are well provided for by Vice Mayor Manimtim and there’s no reason for them to harm him,” said Castro, the concurrent chief of the Special Investigation Task Group Manimtim. “So we are now ruling out love triangle as the motive behind the victim’s death.”

According to Castro, they are now concentrating on the politics and money angles as he dispatched police investigators to Talisay town to gather additional evidence.

Manimtim was a three-term mayor of Talisay town and decided to slide down to vice mayor in the last election. He planned to return to his former post in the 2013 local elections.

Manimtim was walking toward his car after meeting with his lawyers at a restaurant in a Pasay City mall when he was gunned down by an assassin Friday. His two police escorts, who are from the Batangas police’s public safety unit, failed to “act accordingly” during the shooting, National Capital Region Police Office chief Director Alan Purisima said.

Purisima has ordered an investigation into the authority of the two policemen to escort Manimtim outside Batangas province. “We will file charges against the two policemen once evidence warrants,” he said.