LINGAYEN–The Pangasinan Police Office (PPO) has confirmed that one of the persons arrested by the police at the residence of the leader of a Private Armed Group (PAG) in Barangay Flores, San Manuel town last Sept. 12 is the gun-for-hire suspected to have assassinated San Manuel’s vice mayor five years ago.

Arrested in a raid conducted by joint elements of the police in Region 1, Pangasinan and San Manuel police in the morning of September 12 was Marcelino Cardinas Jr., alias Jun Fabro, a native of Barangay Botobot Norte, Balaoan, La Union.

Police Provincial Director Mariano Luis Verzosa, officer-in-charge of the PPO, said Cardinas is tagged as the gun-for-hire who killed Vice Mayor Bonifacio Apilado in Urdaneta City on June 20, 2007; and Christopher Alfonso, an engineer, on Aug. 21, 2011.

A report of the police showed that Cardinas has a standing warrant of arrest for murder issued by Regional Trial Court Judge Joven Costales of Branch 45 in Urdaneta City.

Cardinas was arrested in the house of Leonardo Sol, leader of the Sol Group, one of the identified PAGs in Pangasinan believed under the employ of a local politician whom the police did not identify.

The police also seized several high-powered firearms and ammunition during the raid.

Also raided on the same day in Barangay Gueset Norte, Dagupan City was the house of Renato Tarinay Jr. from where several firearms and ammunition were also seized.

Tarinay eluded arrest.

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