MANILA, Philippines – A suspect in the killing of a barangay chairman in Manila yesterday tagged two incumbent officials, one of whom was a former city councilor, as the brains in the victim’s assassination last year.
Rogelio Villamor, 39, a member of the Sigue-Sigue Sputnik gang, was arrested by operatives of the Manila Police District (MPD) homicide section near his house on Lico street in Tondo at around 1 p.m. Thursday on the strength of a warrant issued by Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 11 Judge Cicero Jurado Jr.
Villamor implicated a certain Bisaya and one Eldrin in the murder of Barangay 349 chairman Oliver Franco.
Franco was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle at the corner of Antipolo and Oroquieta streets in Sta. Cruz on March 5, 2015.
Franco died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds reportedly from an Ingram submachine gun.
In an interview in his detention cell at the MPD, Villamor claimed Bisaya contacted him for a job in February last year.
“Bisaya took me to the house of chairman PB where I saw Eldrin. The barangay official served us food and told us that he would give us P10,000 each to kill somebody. Franco was the target,” he told The STAR.
Senior Police Officer 4 Richard Lumbad said Villamor and the two other suspects wearing helmets were caught on a closed-circuit television camera roaming Barangay 349 before Franco was gunned down.
Villamor, however, denied he was with Bisaya and Eldrin when Franco was killed.
“I backed off from the job because I won a huge sum of money on horse racing,” he said.
Villamor claimed the two barangay chairmen hatched the plan to kill Franco due to politics.
Villamor surrendered to Vice Mayor Isko Moreno three days after the killing. But he was released by the city prosecutor for further investigation, according to Lumbad.
Villamor said he would ask the court to make him a state witness.