Key suspect in killing of Ati leader in Boracay falls

MANILA, Philippines - A former security guard tagged as the primary suspect in the killing of a spokesman of the Ati community on Boracay island last Feb. 22 was arrested in Laguna on Monday.

Daniel Celestino, 32, former  guard of the Crown Regency Convention Center, did not resist arrest when cornered in Sta. Cruz town at around 7 p.m. Monday.

Senior Superintendent Romulo Sapitula, Laguna police director, said Celestino was the prime suspect in the killing of Dexter Condez, 26, a community organizer and spokesman of the Ati community in Boracay.

Sapitula said Celestino went into hiding after the killing of Condez in Sitio Lugutan, Barangay Manoc-Manoc in Malay, Aklan.

Police suspect that Condez’s killing was related to his being a spokesman of the Ati-community in the dispute over the 2.1-hectare beachfront property that the government awarded to the indigenous group in 2011 by virtue of a Certificate of Ancestral Domain.

Chief Inspector Ferjen Torred, of the Region 6 police, coordinated with Sapitula following the sighting of Celestino in Barangay Palasan in Sta. Cruz town.

Torred and Chief Inspector Vicente Cabatingan, of the Laguna police, served to Celestino the arrest warrant for murder issued by Judge Domingo Casiple Jr. of the Aklan Regional Trial Court Branch 17.