Ex-cop in slay of former Kalinga vice gov nabbed

TABUK CITY, Kalinga -- Police arrested a retired policeman tagged as one of the suspects in the 2007 killing of former Kalinga vice governor Rommel Diasen in a police operations in Metro Manila early this week.

Retired policeman Angelito Eyadan Dangli, 68, is currently under the custody of the Tabuk City police after he was arrested in a fast food restaurant in Quezon City.

Diasen, 58, who was running for governor under the  Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), was shot dead while campaigning in here in April 2007.

Another suspect in the killing identified as Joel Melod, 24, of Kalinga, then surrendered to the Baguio City police and reportedly admitted his participation in the crime.

Melod reportedly told police that the murder of Diasen was to avenge the killing of his uncle, then Kalinga Judge Milnar Lammawin, in 2004.

Nothing has since been heard about Melod until the reported arrest of Dangli this week. 

Dangli was arrested in an entrapment at a popular food chain in Cubao, Quezon City, the top police official in Cordillera confirmed Monday.

Chief Supt. Benjamin Magalong, Cordillera regional police director, said Dangli,  a resident of San Pedro, Laguna, was arrested last July 18.

He will face trial for murder before Judge Marcelino K. Wacas of Regional Trial Court Branch 25 over the fatal shooting of Diasan in Tabuk, Kalinga on April 7, 2007.