The Philippine National Police (PNP) is eyeing a foul play in the death of the alleged middleman in the assassination of broadcast journalist Percy Mabasa, more known in the media as Percy Lapid.

In a press briefing at Camp Crame, PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin, Jr. said Crisanto Villamor could have provided vital information that could lead the police investigators as to who ordered the hit on Mabasa who was gunned down on Oct. 3 in Las Piñas City.

Police said Crisanto Villamor and Jun Villamor are the same person.

"It's too much of an incident. It's an unfortunate incident but the timing is questionable," said Azurin.

Villamor was tagged by Joel Escorial, the self-confessed gunman, who contracted him to do a hit job on Mabasa. He said there were six of them and they were all paid P550,000, a total of P140,000 of which was deposited in Escorial's bank account.

A day after Escorial surrendered on Oct. 17, Villamor died inside his detention facility at the New Bilibid Prisons and a number of people are eyeing foul play behind his sudden death.

Azurin himself is questioning the timing of the death of Villamor: "We were almost there, isn't it? We have the triggerman, we have the pieces of evidence and we were almost there to talk to the middleman and this happened."

"I don't know if that was accidental because he was the person we were looking for, we wanted to talk to," he stressed.

Azurin, however, said that they will wait for the investigation being conducted by the Department of Justice.

Early coordination

As soon as Escorial squealed the name of Crisanto Villamor after his surrender on Oct. 17, Southern Police District director Brig. Gen. Kirby John Kraft said they immediately made a telephone call to the NBP to check if there was an inmate named Crisanto Villamor.

Kraft said they were informed that there was none and the next step they did is to send a formal letter to the NBP to inquire on the name of the inmate.

"When they said that they have no inmate of that name, I directed the chief of police to make a formal letter and the result was that they issued a certification that
there is no person under their custody with the name of Crisanto Villamor," said Kraft,

Police were supposed to make a follow-up when they were informed that Villamor died in the afternoon of Oct. 18.

Childhood friends

After the news of the death of Villamor was announced by Justice Sec. Jesus Crispin Remulla, the police released a photo of Escroial identifying Villamor as the middleman.

Kraft said Escorial and Villamor had a long history of friendship.

"For the information of everybody, they are childhood friends in Leyte. They both went here (Metro Manila)," said Kraft.

He, however, did not disclose more details.

No sense of urgency

During the press briefing, Azurin could not help but hit NBP for lack of sense of urgency on a case that is already being talked about nationwide.

"Due to the exigency and urgency of the situation, we immediately coordinated with the NBP and they said there was no inmate of that specific name," said Azurin.

"What they should have done is to segregate and secure all the inmates with Villamor surname. But what happened was that we were not furnished with the right information," he added.