Cop tagged in rob, ambush dismissed

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga – Chief Superintendent Alejandro Lapinid, Central Luzon police director, has ordered the dismissal from the service of a police officer tagged as the mastermind of the slay attempt on the mayor of Masantol town.

But the relief of Chief Inspector Jorse Antonio Bustos, as recommended by a probe team, stemmed from an administrative case against him in connection with a robbery in the City of San Fernando on Aug. 7 last year.

Bustos, who belongs to the headquarters support group of the Central Luzon police based here, was tagged as the alleged brains of the Feb. 12 ambush of Masantol Mayor Peter Flores.

The probe team, headed by Senior Superintendent Alfredo Caballes, found Bustos guilty of "serious irregularity in the performance of duty" and "conduct unbecoming of a police officer."

This, after the suspect in the San Fernando robbery, who was killed in a shootout with responding policemen, was found in possession of a service firearm issued to Bustos.

"His close interaction with the suspect, which dated back since he was still an inspector, magnified the confidence he reposed upon the suspect with whom he had entrusted his service pistol, to the prejudice of the organization and the people he pledged to serve and protect," Lapinid said in his decision imposing the "maximum penalty of dismissal from the service."

Lapinid said Bustos had consistently ignored the summons of the probe team.

"Such non-appearance was a constructive waiver of his rights to present his answer to the complaint and defend himself," he said.

Bustos, a brother of Masantol Vice Mayor Jorge Bustos, has gone into hiding after two suspects arrested in the slay attempt on Flores tagged him as the mastermind.

Flores, who was wounded during the ambush, insisted that politics motivated the attempt on his life.

Vice Mayor Bustos has not surfaced since the ambush.

But Senior Superintendent Dindo Espina, Pampanga police director, said there is yet "no material evidence" to link the vice mayor to the ambush that killed Flores’ security aide, PO4 Nick Yabut, and wounded his driver, Rolando Manalang.

The mayor’s wife Librada, was unhurt during the ambush.

Espina said charges of murder and two counts of frustrated homicide have been filed against Chief Inspector Bustos, whom ambush suspects Jesus Manalo and Jefferson Perez have tagged as the mastermind.

Police sources said Yabut managed to fire back during the ambush and wound two other suspects.

The two boarded a tricycle and told its driver to proceed to the house of one closely identified with Vice Mayor Bustos in the compound of the Masantol Central Elementary School.

Police probers later saw bloodstains in front of the house.

The existence of the two other suspects surfaced when the tricycle driver complained to the police that two wounded men who rode his tricycle on the night of the ambush failed to pay him.

Police found the house in the school compound empty in the morning after the ambush.

Flores said his vice mayor has not reported to work since the ambush.

He said he is planning to file an administrative case against him for abandoning his post.

Lapinid said Vice Mayor Bustos has sent word to the police that he was not in hiding. He did not elaborate.