PNP special unit nabs Agarao slay suspect

Police arrested over the weekend one of the alleged hit men in the slaying of Lumban municipal administrator Clarence Agarao, husband of former Crusade Against Violence (CAV) president Carina Agarao, in Sta. Cruz, Laguna five years ago.

Chief Inspector Rodrigo de Gracia, Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman, presented 35-year-old Bernardo Toque Garbo alias Berto Toque, a resident of Barangay Balibad, Lumban, Laguna, to reporters at Camp Crame yesterday.

Garbo, who had a P100,000 price on his head, however, denied any hand in the Agarao killing, claiming he was just mistaken as one of the perpetrators.

The PNP Special Task Group, a special unit under PNP chief Director Leandro Mendoza, arrested Garbo on the strength of an arrest warrant issued by Judge Francisco Go of the Municipal Trial Court of Sta. Cruz, Laguna.

Mendoza formed the special unit to handle controversial cases such as the bombings in Metro Manila last Dec. 30 and the killings of labor leader Filemon Lagman and publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

Mendoza also tasked the unit to go after the killers of Agarao.

Carina Agarao and Teresita Ang-See, head of another anti-crime watchdog, earlier blocked Mendoza’s appointment as PNP chief, with the former accusing him of coddling the mastermind and killers of her husband.

The arresting team, led by Chief Inspector Jose Pomeda, swooped down on Garbo’s residence in Barangay Balibad last Sunday afternoon.

Garbo said residents had tipped him off of the plan to arrest him but he ignored it. "I know I am innocent so why would I escape the authorities?" he said in Tagalog.

But police said Garbo resisted arrest, suffering a head injury when one of Pomeda’s men reportedly hit him with a caliber .45 pistol after he refused to yield peacefully.