Subic-based businessman Dennis Sytin on Monday denied involvement in the killing of his older brother Dominic in November last year.
The executive of vehicle importer United Auctioneers Inc. showed up before the Department of Justice and sought the dismissal of murder and frustrated murder filed against him by the Philippine National Police.
In his counter-affidavit, Sytin questioned the credibility of arrested gunman Edgardo Luib who pointed to him as the mastermind of his brother’s murder.
“Luib, the self-confessed gunman of Dominic, is a polluted source whose statements must be viewed with the greatest caution and circumspection. He is motivated by self-preservation and protection of a childhood friend and kumpadre,” the businessman told the investigating panel headed by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera.
Sytin said that there was no clear and categorical evidence to support Luib’s claim.
“There is no physical evidence which shows any purported link to the planning and perpetration of the crime to corroborate Luib’s statements,” he said.
Sytin said he had never met Luib and that the evidence pointed to the other respondent, Oliver Fuentes alias Ryan Rementilla, as the brains behind the killing.
Fuentes is expected to appear before the DOJ in the next preliminary investigation hearing on April 15.
Luib was arrested in Batangas last March 5. He executed an extrajudicial confession that identified the younger Sytin as the mastermind and tagged Fuentes in the killing. Luib said he was promised P1 million to kill Dominic, but was paid only P50,000.
The older Sytin, founder and chief executive officer of UAI, was killed in front of the Lighthouse Hotel in Subic on Nov. 28 last year. His driver, Efren Espartero, was wounded when he tried to fight back.
Investigators believed that the killing had to do with an alleged fight over control of shares of UAI, one of the country’s biggest auction firms.