Tetangco-Yap Killing: Police to search place where slay happened

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga , Philippines  – The police task force probing the murder of a brother of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco and two others has obtained a warrant to search the place where the crime supposedly took place last June 2.

Col. Wendy Rosario, chairman of Task Force Tetangco-Yap, declined to identify the exact place, saying though this is in Porac town.

Rosario said this is a major development in the killing of Tetangco’s brother Rene, businessman Florencio Yap, and Yap’s aide Dennis Guinto.

The bullet-riddled bodies of the three were found in Yap’s Ford Expedition abandoned on a vacant lot in Barangay Pampang, Angeles City. Probers said they were apparently killed elsewhere.

Rosario declined to give more details on the progress on the case, but he earlier said that identifying the place where the victims were shot dead could provide more physical evidence as well as possible witnesses to the crime.

A P1-million reward has been put up for information leading to the arrest of the killers. Of this amount, P400,000 came from the police and P600,000 from a party whom the police have refused to identify.

Rosario and Senior Superintendent Marvin Bolabola, regional chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), denied a report in a local paper yesterday that the mastermind in the killings has been identified.

“I know of no such thing,” Rosario said, even as Bolabola expressed surprise over the report.

At least 28 people have given their testimonies to Task Force Tetangco-Yap, which, however, still has to name any possible suspect.

Rosario, however, said probers are eyeing the possibility that the killings could have been triggered by Yap’s involvement and, to a lesser extent, Tetangco’s in cockfighting operations as well as political alliances in Bacolor town.

The victims were on their way to play poker at the King’s Poker and Sports Club here on the night they were killed last June 12.  

Among those interviewed by the police were former Bacolor mayor Romeo Dungca and defeated Bacolor mayoral candidate Dinan Labung with whom the victims were supposed to play poker.

Dungca, who could not be contacted by phone yesterday, earlier denied any differences with Yap over cockfighting, saying such a conflict happened way back in 2007.

Labung could also not be reached. In the last mayoral elections in Bacolor, he lost to Jomar Hizon whom Yap had supported.