The name of the mastermind behind the killing of Gen. Tinio, Nueva Ecija Mayor Ferdinand Bote was reportedly squealed by two alleged assassins who were arrested in Camarines Sur last Wednesday.
Director General Oscar Albayalde, chief of the Philippine National Police, said the two arrested suspects, Florencio Suarez and Robert Gumacay, admitted that they shot Bote in Cabanatuan City Tuesday last week.
“Suarez admitted that he was among those who shot Bote, Gumatay confessed that he is the gunman,” said Albayalde.
“They admitted that they were hired. That’s why the person he mentioned, whom we cannot name right now, is a subject of our manhunt. He is now a person of interest,” he added.
Suarez and Gumacay were collared on board a car in a checkpoint in Del Gallego, Camarines Sur, according to Bicol police director Chief Supt. Abner Escobal.
Escobal said police had been tailing the vehicle all the way from Central Luzon.
Bote was gunned down on board his vehicle which had just left the compound of the Cabanatuan office of the National Irrigation Administration. (Aaron B. Recuenco)