2 suspects in Vigan judge slay nabbed in La Union

Two suspects in the killing of a Vigan City judge last year were arrested last week in La Union province after authorities received a tip from an informant, police said Sunday. National police spokesman Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. said the two — Peter Tagura and Candido Mitrado — were collared at the Cockpit Arena of San Gabriel town last Thursday. The two are believed to be behind the killing of Judge Reynaldo Lacasandile of Vigan City Regional Trial Court Branch 20 in October last year. Lacasandile was gunned down last October 4 by two men on board a motorcycle while he was walking to a bus station along the national highway in Brgy. Lacong in Tagudin, Ilocos Sur. At that time, he was the 21st judge to be killed since 1999, and the second in northern Luzon that year. Cruz said they have sufficient evidence linking Tagura and Mitrado to the killing. “Based on the result of the ballistics examination, one of the two .45 pistols seized from the two during the operation matched with the cartridge recovered in the crime scene," he said. Cruz said such ballistics result is enough to pin down the two, especially Mitrado, the owner of the handgun. “We also have witnesses confirming that they are the same persons tailing Judge Lacasandile before he was shot," said Cruz. Cruz said they have already asked the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police’s Task Force Lacasandile to include the Mitrado and Tagura in the charge sheet. Prior to the arrest of the two, seven persons, three of them John Does, have been named respondents in a murder complaint filed in connection with Lacasandile’s killing. — KBK, GMA News