PNP: Phl shooter’s killers paid in guns, grenades

MANILA, Philippines - Hitmen who killed Philippine practical shooting team member Michael Lontoc were paid with guns and grenades, according to a Philippine National Police (PNP) report.

Jimmy Pianiar, who confessed to participating in the attack on Lontoc in Malabon City in September 2011, said he himself received only P1,000 for the job.

Pianiar, one of four men charged for the crime, was arrested on March 30 based on an arrest warrant issued by Malabon Regional Trial Court Judge Zaldy Docena.  

Under interrogation, Pianiar revealed the identities of those involved in Lontoc’s murder, including the mastermind, the PNP reported. PNP Intelligence Group director Chief Superintendent Abe Villacorta said they are gathering more evidence for the filing of charges against the mastermind.

Pianiar – a former employee of a cooking oil firm owned by the family of Philippine shooting gold medalist Tac Padilla – claimed that the mastermind gave the hitmen a Bushmaster rifle, 10 9mm pistols and at least 38 hand grenades as a reward for the successful hit on Lontoc.

The PNP report identified the hitmen as members of a communist hit squad. The firearms were distributed to other communist rebels based in Malabon, Pianiar said.

He added that each of the hitmen were given allowances and he received P1,000 for a “job well done.”

Pianiar said his group tried to kill Lontoc at least five times, and each time it was the mastermind who set up the attempt. He said that on Sept. 25, 2011, they ambushed Lontoc after he participated in a shooting competition in Malabon.

He said they then regrouped at their safehouse in Barangay Tonsuya and turned over to the mastermind the firearms they used in the ambush – an Uzi machine pistol and several handguns.