(CMFR/IFEX) – With the help of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), authorities are now reportedly closing in on two suspects in the killing of publisher-editor Philip Agustin. Agustin was killed on 10 May 2005 in Dingalan, Aurora, just northeast of metropolitan Manila. According to NBI reports, Noel “Boyet” Morete and Emmanuel Alday, the two […]
(CMFR/IFEX) – With the help of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), authorities are now reportedly closing in on two suspects in the killing of publisher-editor Philip Agustin. Agustin was killed on 10 May 2005 in Dingalan, Aurora, just northeast of metropolitan Manila.
According to NBI reports, Noel “Boyet” Morete and Emmanuel Alday, the two suspects in the murder of the “Starline News Recorder” publisher-editor, are now holed up somewhere in the nearby town of Casiguran, east of Manila. Another suspect, Dingalan mayor Jaime Ylarde, remains free because no arrest warrant has been issued for him.
Last July, murder charges were filed before the Aurora prosecutor’s office against the three men. Morete is also wanted for other crimes he reportedly committed prior to the killing of Agustin, including the murder of an army soldier and a police officer. Alday has been in hiding although no arrest warrant has been issued for him.
Earlier in June, Ylarde and the two suspects were implicated by an earlier suspect – now a star witness – Reynaldo Morete, who claimed the mayor was the mastermind behind Agustin’s murder. Ylarde denied the allegation.
Agustin had reported on numerous local government anomalies prior to his death. But even as the NBI declared that authorities were close to arresting the suspects, police chief Perfecto Palad, leader of the special task force to solve Agustin’s killing, said his operatives had lost track of both suspects, according to national daily “The Philippine Star”.
“We have not disbanded the task force and we continue to welcome information on the whereabouts of the suspects, but we have other tasks to do,” Palad said.
