BY VICTOR REYES and ASHZEL HACHERO
ONE of the suspects in the October 2022 killing of broadcaster Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa shot himself dead while policemen were serving an arrest warrant against him in Batangas yesterday, according to the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).
Orlando Almanor, alias Orly, also held hostage his live-in partner and his child before ending his own life, said NCRPO director Maj. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez.
Lapid’s younger brother, Roy Mabasa, questioned circumstances behind Almanor’s death.
“It appears that everyone who could speak out about the case… is either being silenced or has died under mysterious circumstances,” Mabasa said when sought for comment on the police report on Almanor’s death.
“Is he really the same person they’re looking for, the one named Orly? There are so many questions that remain unanswered. It’s not that I don’t trust the PNP. Kaya lang ganito na naman ang nangyari kapareho nung five months ago, sa pagkamatay umano ni Ricardo Zulueta. Puro kuwento lang ng pulis ang nadidinig nating lahat (Just that the same thing happened, like five months ago, when Ricardo Zulueta dies. All we hear are the police accounts),” he said.
Mabasa was referring to the controversy surrounding the death of former Bureau of Corrections official Ricardo Zulueta, who was tagged as one of the masterminds in the killing.
Nartatez said policemen were deployed to Purok 4, Barangay Lumbang in Lipa City on Saturday night to serve the warrant of arrest to Almanor in connection with Lapid’s murder.
However, Almanor took his live-in partner and his child hostage, prompting a negotiation.
Nartatez said the barangay chairman and a cousin of Almanor — a native of Baco in Oriental Mindoro and was known in the area as “Jake Mendoza” — negotiated with the suspect for the release of the hostages.
Nartatez said the hostage situation lasted until around 4 a.m. yesterday when Almanor released the hostage victims.
“Minutes after that, after the release of the hostages, he shot himself dead in front of the negotiators – the barangay captain and his cousin,” he said.
Nartatez said the PNP wanted Almasor alive, noting his testimony will be vital in getting justice for Mabasa.
He said the operation was conducted as part of a case operational plan crafted about six months ago.
Nartatez also disclosed two who remain at large, brothers Israel and Edmon Dimaculangan, were sighted in the area about two or three weeks ago.
The prime suspect in the case, former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) director Gerald Bantag, is also at large.
Bantag’s deputy, Ricardo Zulueta, has also been charged in connection with Lapid’s killing and had gone into hiding but died in March in Bataan due to heart failure.
A Las Piñas City court has sentenced Joel Escorial, the self-confessed gunman, to eight to 16 years imprisonment.
Nartatez said Almanor was among those who planned Lapid’s killing.
“We are (going) after three personalities,” said Nartatez, referring to the three at-large suspects — Bantag and the Dimaculangan brothers.
Lapid, a hard-hitting radio and online commentator, was gunned down by two men while on his way home to Las Piñas City on Oct. 3, 2022.
Bantag and Zulueta were charged with two counts of murder over the deaths of Lapid and Bilibid inmate Cristito Palaña Villamor alias Jun Villamor.
Villamor was killed a few days later after being implicated in Lapid’s death by Escorial.
