LUBAO, Pampanga – A standing order from Gov. Lilia “Nanay Baby” Pineda herself has compelled the police here to get to the bottom of the murder case involving a retired hotel worker from Illinois, USA, who was attacked inside his residence in Purok 6, Barangay San Nicolas 1st.
The victim was identified by police as Jose Tolentino Garcia, 73, who died in a nearby hospital a few days after he was attacked and sustained injuries on his head at around 3:30 am last January 1.
The Lubao police led by Supt. Jean Salvador Fajardo, town police chief, arrested the suspect identified as Alex Montemayor Carpio, 36, in his house in Barangay Remedios here on January 11 after “securing physical evidence,”
An Apple IPhone 3 reportedly owned by the victim, which was stolen from himby the suspect after the attack. Fajardo said Carpio admitted killing Garcia and made an extrajudicial onfession in the presence of Atty. Caesar Dallay on Sunday night.
Garcia’s family owns the Lubao Institute (LI), the town’s first and oldest private school established in 1929. Garcia’s five children are all based in the USA and were not in the country when their father – fondly called “Pitong” by friends — was attacked by the suspect by hitting him in the head with a “long hard wood.”
On Monday afternoon, the Lubao police led by P03 Avelino Agumboy, chief investigator, filed a murder case against Carpio before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office in he City of San Fernando. Agumboy said Carpio was angered by Garcia over a financial misunderstanding on the use of the suspect’s tricycle.
The suspect has been using the tricycle of his father who is a neighbor of Garcia in San Nicolas 1st. Police arrested Carpio after they were able the get the IPhone 3 owned by Garcia from Kelvin Dizon in his workplace in Guiguinto,
Bulacan on Sunday. Dizon, a relative of Carpio, visited his relatives in Lubao to celebrate the New Year. He said Carpio gave him the cellphone at around 8 p.m. on January 1. “Carpio just told me to keep the cellphone and he didn’t give any instructions on what to do with it,” said Dizon in the dialect.
“I got suspicious when Carpio called last January 3 and he asked me not to tell anyone, including my parents, that I have the unit,” he added. Police investigators said “the discovery of the cellphone helped convince Carpio to admit his crime.” Meanwhile, Gov. Pineda, who was a long-time mayor of this town, thanked the police for solving the murder case.
