A suspect in the killing of Mayor Ferdinand Bote of General Tinio, Nueva Ecija, was arrested on Wednesday by policemen conducting a checkpoint in Camarines Sur.
The arrest came two days after National Police chief Director General Oscar D. Albayalde said they already have a good lead into the killing, and that they were expecting to make arrests within the week.
Chief Supt. Arnel Escobal, Bicol regional police director, said the suspect, Florencio Suarez, 48, was arrested at a checkpoint along the Andaya National Highway in Barangay Cabasag, Del Gallego, Camarines Sur.
Suarez yielded a .45 caliber pistol when he was apprehended at around 9:30 a.m., along with companion, Robert Gumacay, 35.
Escobal said Suarez, who is under investigation by the Del Gallego Police Station, had earlier been identified as among the “persons of interest” in the murder of Bote.
Bote was ambushed right outside the compound of the National Irrigation Administration in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija, on Tuesday last week. Albayalde ruled out politics in his death.
He was among the three local officials that have been gunned down in a span of one week after assassins also killed Tanauan City, Batangas, Mayor Antonio Halili and Trece Martires City, Cavite, Vice Mayor Alexander Cruz Lubigan.
Escobal said a team of policemen, led by SPO4 Agusto Adulta, were manning a checkpoint when they flagged down a Toyota Avanza, bearing a lost plate number PGQ 134 driven by Suarez, with Gumacay as passenger.
He said the policemen also seized from Suarez a .45 caliber pistol, which was “seen [in] plain view on the left driver seat portion” of the vehicle.
Interviewed by a radio station in Manila, Escobal said Suarez was a person of interest in Bote’s killing.
He said follow-up operations were also being conducted by the police, possibly to arrest Suarez’s accomplice in the murder.