Another Punzalan slay suspect falls

One of the "gunmen" who killed Quezon Rep. Marcial Punzalan Jr. during a miting de avance of his wife two days before last year’s elections, was arrested by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Army’s Task Force Makiling in Candelaria, Quezon over the weekend.

Two vital witnesses have positively identified suspect Mario Rivera, 54, as the one who approached Punzalan, shook his hand and shot him with a pistol.

Rivera, a farm caretaker, was nabbed at Maloles Hacienda in Barangay Sta. Catalina Sur last Saturday.

Last October, the NBI filed murder charges against another suspect, Andro Quitalig, who was also linked to the killing of a Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) member in Sariaya, Quezon some years back.

NBI probers believe that Rivera was a "hired gun" and "may not have links" with the New People’s Army (NPA), being a former CAFGU member himself.

The NPA’s Melito Glor Command had claimed responsibility for Punzalan’s assassination because of his alleged "crimes against the people."

NBI director Reynaldo Wycoco said, "It appears the NPA angle can now be dismissed. The strongest motive at the moment is political rivalry."

Punzalan’s sister, Cristy Punzalan-Singson, welcomed the news about Rivera’s arrest. "This only shows that the NPA has nothing to do with the killing of my brother," she said.

The NBI filed charges against Rivera with the Quezon prosecutor’s office yesterday. It is now looking into the involvement of two other gunmen in the killing based on its findings that three types of firearms were used.

Punzalan, 54, along with his cousin-bodyguard, Conrado Soriano Punzalan, 59, was gunned down during the campaign rally of his wife Lynette, a congressional candidate of the People Power Coalition, in Tiaong, Quezon on May 12 last year.

Another bodyguard of Punzalan, Nemesio Barnachea, 45, was wounded in the attack.

The lawmaker and his aides had just alighted from their vehicles at the main gate of the Tiaong plaza when they were shot from behind with automatic pistols. Thirteen caliber .45 shells and three spent 9-mm. shells were found at the scene.

An NBI source believes that politics was the likely motive behind the murder.

Punzalan was on his third and last term as congressman of Quezon and was grooming his wife to be his successor.