Brother tagged in trader’s murder
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2019 06:54:23 +0000
Police have tagged the younger brother of businessman Dominic Sytin as the mastermind behind his assassination last year in Olongapo City.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde identified the prime suspect as Dennis Sytin, who, along with his slain brother, runs the United Auctioneers Inc. (UAI), a company that engages in the importation and selling of industrial transport and construction machines.
“From all indications, this high-profile murder of Dominic Lim Sytin was apparently motivated by rivalry among corporate siblings and carried out through a gun-for-hire contract with a hitman,” said Albayalde.
Dominic was gunned down on Nov. 28 last year outside the Lighthouse Hotel at the Subic Bay Freeport. His security escort, Efren Espertero, was wounded during the attack.
Director Amador Corpus, head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said the breakthrough in the case came on Feb. 4 when a walk-in witness gave the police a description of the gunman.
The witness was reportedly lured by the P1-million reward offered by the family of Dominic for any information that could lead to the arrest of the suspect.
With the help of the witness and other information obtained from other witnesses, the police were able to identify the gunman as Edgardo Luib of Imus City, Cavite who uses the alias “Injeck.”
A background check reveals that Luib is a go-to contract killer.
On March 5, Luib was arrested in a raid on the house of his live-in partner in Sto. Tomas, Batangas.
Seized from him were a Carbine, a .40 caliber pistol, and a .45 pistol which police said had matched the two slugs and nine fired cartridges recovered in the crime scene.
“Luib’s fingerprint standard also matched the latent prints lifted from the side mirror of the getaway Yamaha Mio motorcycle used in the shooting,” said Albayalde. “With these ‘smoking gun’ evidence, we now have an airtight case that we will file in court against gunman Luib, and all those who conspired for the hit job on Dominic Lim Sytin,” he added.
In front of his family and legal counsel, Luib, made an extra-legal confession wherein he allegedly named Dominic’s younger brother Dennis as the brain, according to Albayalde.
According to Luib, he allegedly met Dennis through his childhood friend Ryan Rementilla.
The first meeting occurred sometime in August in a beach resort at the SBMA where he was given P10,000. He was given another P10,000 during a second meeting.
During his stay at the SBMA two days before the killing of Dominic, Corpus said Luib was given P30,000.
“The total contract price was P1 million but according to him, he only received a total of P50,000,” said Corpus.
Luib believes that the rest of the P1 million was in possession of Rementilla who had gone into hiding.
Corpus said Rementilla became an employee of UAI in 2001 using the name of Oliver Fuentes because of his pending arrest warrant for murder.
Rementilla gained the trust of Dominic, but had a falling out after the businessman found out about his real identity. In August of 2018, Dominic fired Rementilla whom he accused of duping him close to P1 million from payment collections.
Rementilla then moved to the company of Dennis which the police believe the murder of Dominic was hatched. Police said Rementilla and Luib are childhood friends.
A background check showed that Luib has two pending arrest warrants for murder involving a hard-hitting Batangas-based female journalist Mae Magsino and Bauan councilor Michael Caringal.
Business rivalry between the brothers led to the murder, according to Chief Supt. Joel Napoleon Coronel, director of the Central Luzon regional police. “Apparently, they were quarreling over shares or control of shares in the United Auctioneers International,” Coronel said.
Dominic and Dennis hold key positions in the company as chief executive officer and chief operating officer, respectively.
Corpus said the quarrel escalated that Dennis was barred from entering the UAI premises.
On Nov. 15, 2018, Corpus said Dennis was kicked out of the UAI after being accused of diverting some of the funds of the UAI to the new company he had set up.
Coronel said that the last time they talked with Dennis was last month when he was inquiring on the development of the case.
Dennis, according to Coronel, had been cooperating with the investigation and suggested that business rivalry could be a possible motive.
During that time, police have still no clue on the possible involvement of Dennis.
“We believe that he (Dennis) is still here in the country. We also told the family of the new development of this case,” said Coronel.
Corpus said that they will be filing murder and frustrated murder against Dennis, Rementilla, and Luib.
But he said they are also looking for other possible suspects, including a tipster of the whereabouts and movement of Dominic hours before his killing. (Aaron Recuenco)