Ati tribeman's killer nabbed in Laguna

MANILA, Philippines - Authorities arrested a man wanted for the murder of a Boracay Ati tribe February last year in his hideout in Laguna, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission said on Wednesday.

PAOCC executive director, Chief Superintendent Reginald Villasanta,  said the capture of Daniel Celestino came following months of investigation on the murder of Ati tribe spokesperson Dexter Condez.

Armed with an arrest warrant, PAOCC and members of the Laguna Provincial Police Office  nabbed Celestino as he was about to leave his hideout in Barangay Palasan, Sta. Cruz, Laguna last Monday.

Judge Domingo Casiople of the Kalibo, Aklan Regional Trial Court branch 7 did not recommend bail for Celestino.

The suspect is now detained at the Laguna PPO jail.

Celestino was positively identified by witnesses as the one who shot  Condez, 26,  while the latter was on his way home in Sitio Lugutan, Bgy. Manoc-Manoc, Boracay Island in Malay, Aklan around 8:45 p.m. on February 22, 2013.

Condez instantly died from gunshot wounds.

An investigation conducted by the Aklan Provincial Police Office’s Task Group Condez led to the filing of a murder case against Celestino, a security guard employed by a hotel in Boracay, before the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor of Kalibo, Aklan on February 26 last year.

A PAOCC fact-finding team said Condez had been killed as a result of the ongoing dispute over the 2.1 hectare of land awarded to the Ati Community by the National Commission of Indigenous Peoples on January 2011, which is contested by several private individuals.