MANILA – 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 morning.
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 police was negotiating for the release of his live-in partner and their child, whom the suspect held hostages early in Purok 4, Barangay Lumbang in Lipa City.
Mendoza eventually released them before killing himself.
"Hindi sya sumuko. Nakipag-negotiate tayo hanggang umabot ng alas kwatro ng madaling araw (He didn't surrender. We negotiated until four in the morning),” he 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 at ng pinsan niya (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.
Lapid was shot dead near his residence in Las Piñas. (Lloyd Caliwan/PNA)
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