MANILA, Philippines — One of the suspects in the October 2022 assassination of broadcaster Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa shot himself dead while the police were about to arrest him in Batangas province on Sunday.
In a radio interview, National Capital Region Police Office chief Maj. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said Jake “Orly” Mendoza, 40, of Baco, Oriental Mindoro shot himself while policemen were negotiating for the release of his live-in partner and their child, whom the suspect held hostage in Barangay Lumbang in Lipa City.
Mendoza eventually released them before killing himself.
“He did not surrender. We negotiated until four in the morning,” Nartatez said.
A cousin of the suspect and a negotiator talked him out of the situation.
Afterward, he went to the bathroom and shot himself “in front of the negotiator and his cousin,” Nartatez said.
In May, the Las Piñas Regional Trial Court sentenced Joel Escorial, the self-confessed gunman of Lapid, to 16 years imprisonment.
Lapid was shot dead near his residence in Las Piñas City.
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