Police believe dalia (right), the wife of enzo Pastor, had an affair with the man who ordered him killed.
Police believe dalia (right), the wife of enzo Pastor, had an affair with the man who ordered him killed.

The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) on Wednesday announced it has closed the case of the murder of race car driver Ferdinand “Enzo” Pastor with the arrest of the gunman and the mastermind.

The police also believe that a love triangle triggered the killing of Pastor.

At a news conference, the QCPD director, Chief Supt. Richard Albano, said Police Officer 2 Edgar Angel was hired by Muntinlupa City (Metro Manila) businessman Domingo de Guzman to kill Pastor.

Albano added that de Guzman was having an affair with Pastor’s wife.

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He said Angel had confessed that De Guzman paid him P100,000 to kill the race driver.

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 City, Pampanga, on June 12 when Pastor was gunned down on Congressional Avenue and Visayas Avenue in Quezon City.

De Guzman was arrested in Muntinlupa less than a week after Angel was nabbed in a drug bust.

Pastor’s father, Thomas, said his family was “very much surprised” about the development, describing it as “a big turnaround” in the case.

Thomas added that he thought the love triangle angle was credible, based on statements of the suspects.

He said de Guzman and Enzo knew each other, “but I never met him. I think the two of them had a fight.”

Police Chief Inspector Rodelio Marcelo, chief of the QCPD Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (CIDU), said Angel was nabbed on Saturday in front of a bakeshop on Boni Serrano Road, Libis, Quezon City, after selling almost 100 grams of shabu to an undercover policeman. A 9mm pistol was also found on Angel.

An informant then linked the policeman to the Pastor killing.

Police investigators also received information that de Guzman had agreed to pay Angel P50,000 as a bonus for the hit.

De Guzman did not know that Angel was already in police custody. The businessman was handing the money to Angel in Santo Niño Village, Muntinlupa, on Tuesday night when the police moved in and arrested him.

Police seized from de Guzman a .45 pistol with seven rounds, a 9mm pistol with 19 rounds and a Toyota Corona with license plate UDU-725.

The suspects are detained in Camp Karingal in Quezon City and will be brought to the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office for an inquest.