PRO 6 nabs PH’s most wanted for ‘murder’
AFTER seven long years in hiding, a wanted murder suspect fell into the hands of the Western Visayas police force who tracked him down in his hiding place in Dingle, Iloilo, last Sunday evening, Police Regional Office (PRO) 6 Director, Brigadier General Leo M. Francisco said Thursday.
The official said the 22-year-old suspect, a resident of Lupao, Nueva Ecija, fled to Iloilo province after becoming wanted for killing a 37-year-old beautician on June 11, 2015.
The suspect has been tagged as a no. 9 regional “most wanted person” and is the subject of a P135,000 reward offered by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
In a report to Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Gen. Rodolfo S. Azurin Jr., the PRO 6 director said that acting on a tip from concerned citizens, members of the PRO 6 Regional Mobile Force Battalion (RMFB), the Dingle Municipal Police Station (MPS), the 1st Iloilo Provincial Mobile Force Company (PMFC), and the Nueva Ecija Police Provincial Office (PPO) arrested the suspect in his hideout in Bgy. Ginalinan Viejo in Dingle municipality.
The suspect was arrested on the strength of a non-bailable warrant of arrest for murder issued by Judge Leo Cecilio Bautista of the San Jose City Regional Trial Court Branch 38 in Nueva Ecija on February 3, 2016.
Francisco said that records showed that the suspect was among the persons who joined a drinking spree inside the house of beautician Henry Comadre on June 11, 2015. The following morning, the body of the victim was found with injuries on his head.
Investigators, with the help of witnesses, later identified the suspect as the man who killed the victim.
The suspect is now being held in a local police jail pending the issuance of a commitment order from the court.
“The arrest of the suspect brings justice to the victim and his family. It is also a clear message to all criminals that the PNP is intensifying its effort to account for all wanted persons in the country,” Azurin said as he commended the PRO 6 agents who arrested the suspect.
