Businessman, cop arrested over racer Enzo Pastor slay

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Police authorities have arrested a fellow policeman and a businessman in connection with the murder of racer Enzo Pastor on June 12 which is suspected to have been caused by a “love triangle.”

Policemen have arrested the alleged mastermind, businessman Domingo de Guzman; and Police Officer 2  Edgar Angel, the alleged gunman, the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) announced in a news briefing at Camp Karingal.

Police are looking at a love triangle as a possible motive for Pastor’s murder, as De Guzman is believed to be involved with Pastor’s wife, Dalia, the police said.

Responding to questions, the QCPD tagged Dalia as a suspect and said authorities are now trying to locate her.

“We established that there is a relationship between Domingo and Dalia, the wife of the deceased,” authorities said in Filipino.

The QCPD said Angel, who was first arrested for possession of illegal drugs, confessed that De Guzman had paid him P100,000 ($2,2870*) to kill the car racer. Angel also said that the plan was hatched “before Christmas” in 2013, and was finally carried out in June.

Authorities said De Guzman denied he knew Angel, even after it had been established that De Guzman’s ex-wife is the godmother of the police officer’s youngest child.

Asked how Angel was linked to the crime, the QCPD said that within 3 weeks after Pastor’s murder, they received some information but had no evidence. They were also informed that the police officer was a drug user, and Angel was eventually nabbed in a drug buy-bust operation.

Pastor and his helper, Paolo Salazar, were driving a truck carrying a race car for the Asian V8 Series at the Clark circuit in Angeles, Pampanga, when Pastor was gunned down at the corner of Congressional Avenue and Visayas Avenue in Quezon City on June 12.

On June 24, barely two weeks after the incident, President Benigno Aquino III had indicated that there were “good leads” in the case, while responding to reporters’ questions on the crime situation in the country.

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, a family friend of the Pastors, had earlier offered a P1-million ($22,870) bounty  for any information that would lead to the capture of the killers.

The QCPD is expected to hold a news briefing early Wednesday afternoon, after the suspects undergo an inquest. – Rappler.com

*$1 = P43.8

Editor’s note: In an earlier version of this story, we wrote that Dalia Pastor was not seen at her husband’s wake. We have since corrected this.