DOUBT shrouds the veracity of reports over the supposed “suicide” committed by one of the suspects behind the murder of hard-hitting radio commentator Percy Lapid sometime in October 2022.
In a report posted on the GMA News website, “operatives fired shots at alias Orly, who locked himself in a room he was renting with his family” while trying to serve a warrant of arrest.
However, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Director Jose Melencio Nartatez said in an interview that the 40-year old Jake Mendoza (alias Orly) shot himself inside the bathroom of a rented room in Lipa City, Batangas.
“Nagbaril po siya sa sarili niya in-front of the negotiator at ng pinsan niya,” Nartatez said in a radio interview.
During the operation, Nartatez said that Mendoza held his live-in partner and child as hostages, for which the cops asked the help of some family members to talk to Mendoza.
It was then that Mendoza, who was arrested in November 2020 and served time in jail over drug-related charges, allegedly decided to release the hostages but still refused to turn himself up.
This developed as the alleged middleman, earlier tagged by self-confessed gunman Joel Escorial as his partner in hatching the slay plan, refused to testify or enter a plea bargain during a court hearing despite the compelling evidence apt for a murder conviction.
According to Lapid’s lawyer, Christopher Bacoto, who is facing four other charges in various Metro Manila courts, refused to cooperate. He was nonetheless granted a two-week reprieve to reconsider his decision.
Lapid, known to be former President Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Sara Duterte’s most vocal critic, was killed on October 3,2022 in Las Pinas City. (ANGEL F. JOSE)
