(CMFR/IFEX) – Three months after identifying the suspects in the killing of editor Philip Agustin, police have failed to arrest two of the three alleged gunmen. Agustin, publisher and editor of the community-based weekly “Starline Times Recorder”, was shot inside his daughter’s house on 10 May 2005. Suspected gunmen Nilo Morete and Manuel Anday were […]
(CMFR/IFEX) – Three months after identifying the suspects in the killing of editor Philip Agustin, police have failed to arrest two of the three alleged gunmen. Agustin, publisher and editor of the community-based weekly “Starline Times Recorder”, was shot inside his daughter’s house on 10 May 2005.
Suspected gunmen Nilo Morete and Manuel Anday were reportedly hiding in a community at the boundary of Aurora and Quezon, south of Manila. The other suspect, Reynaldo Morete, was arrested by police on 14 May. The case is still in its preliminary investigation stage, a Manila-based newspaper reported on 2 August.
Mayor Jaime Ylarde of Dingalan, Aurora, the alleged mastermind in the Agustin slay, did not show up in at least three hearings held in the Department of Justice, said town councilor Valentino Lapuz. Ylarde, however, told CMFR that there was no need for him to appear in the hearings because his lawyer only had to submit affidavits. He had earlier submitted his voluntary comments, denying any involvement in the killing of Agustin. In his 6 June counter-affidavit, Ylarde alleged that Reynaldo Morete was offered money to identify him as the “brains” behind the murder.
Agustin was a known critic of Ylarde.
