MANILA, Philippines—Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim Tuesday politely turned down an informal request from certain UAAP member schools to take charge of the investigation into the shooting incident that nearly claimed the life of Far Eastern University cager Marnel “Mac” Baracael.

Saying he has enough faith that the Manila Police District will solve the crime, Lim ordered MPD director Chief Supt. Roberto Rosales “to investigate fully the incident and to exert all efforts to pinpoint and arrest the perpetrators.”

“The Manila police is on top of the situation,” Lim said in a statement. “We will get the suspects, no matter what it takes.”

The Philippine Daily Inquirer’s sources in the UAAP said at least three member universities, including Ateneo de Manila University and University of the East, wanted the league to ask Lim to spearhead the investigation.

FEU has tightened its team security following the Thursday night shooting of the 6-foot-3 Baracael, who survived a single gunshot wound after a still unidentified assailant shot him with a .45-caliber pistol at the corner of R. Papa and Nicanor Reyes streets in Manila.

“We’re responsible for the players [of the school],” said Anton Montinola, FEU’s representative to the UAAP board.

At least four unimpeachable Inquirer sources at FEU earlier said the attack on Baracael may have been the handiwork of people who want to influence the results of the Tamaraws’ games in the UAAP.

Baracael, who is recovering from a punctured lung and two fractured ribs, had also been transferred to an undisclosed place after being confined at the Capitol Medical Center.

“His security had been comprised, we had to move him,” said Montinola. “He is stable, but we don’t know yet if there will be complications or infections. A tube is still inserted in his body.”

While conspiracy yarns have already spun regarding the shooting, no motive has yet been established by the authorities for the crime. Majority of the knowledgeable sources the Inquirer interviewed, however, pointed to game-fixing as the culprit.

Baracael, according to Inquirer sources, was attacked less than a year after he and another FEU player squealed on the existence of game cheats in the team.

Police on Monday requested for a copy of the security video of a bank near the crime scene, which may have recorded the shooting. But Chief Insp. Dominador Arevalo, head of the MPD homicide division which was tasked to help in the probe, claimed that the establishment, Philtrust Bank, has refused to cooperate.

“[Philtrust] refused to provide us with a copy of the CCTV (closed-circuit television),” said Arevalo.

“One Roberto Mendoza, the bank’s assistant for security operations, was giving us a hard time, giving all sorts of alibis,” Arevalo added. “We told him that the request was based on an order of the city mayor, pero wala daw siyang pakialam (but he doesn’t care).”

A ranking official of a member university in the UAAP told the Inquirer Monday of the move to seek the help of Lim, an alumnus of the University of the East and former police general.

“I am humbled by the request of the UAAP for me to spearhead the investigation of the shooting of Baracael,” said Lim. “However, at this point, I would rather that we give Gen. Rosales the chance to do his job.”