DOJ asks Capiz mayoral bet to answer murder raps

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has ordered Mambusao, Capiz mayoral candidate Leodegario Labao Jr. to answer accusations linking him to the killing of Vice Mayor Abel Martinez in May last year.

Labao did not appear before the DOJ last Thursday and only sent  a lawyer.

Investigators gave Labao until Feb. 9 to appear before the DOJ panel and submit his counter-affidavit, lest they resolve the charges without hearing his side.

Labao, a contractor of the Department of Public Works and Highways in the second district of Capiz, was accused of masterminding the killing of Martinez on May 4 last year. A suspect, Roger Laredo, who was earlier arrested by the Capiz provincial police, tagged him.

Loredo confessed that he served as the driver of the getaway motorcycle used by two gunmen who shot Martinez in front of the vice mayor’s house in Poblacion proper, Mambusao, Capiz. He told probers it was Labao and S/Sgt. Rommel Pamotillo of the Army Intelligence Group based in Fort Bonifacio, who planned the killing.

Loredo said he received P40,000 from a certain Gilbie Prinsipe, the alleged gunman, as payment for his role in the assassination. He claimed that the actual contract for the killing which was hatched in March 2012 in a cockpit in Barangay Bating, was P150,000.

Investigators said Labao was a contractor favored by some politicians and was involved in controversies, including the demolition of the Mambusao town plaza, which was condemned by Martinez in a privilege speech in the local sanggunian.