Top police stories of 2010

CEBU, Philippines - The first half of 2010 was generally peaceful, but starting June crimes were carried out by hired guns who favored motorcycles as their means of getting to their victims and getting away quickly.

Ting ambushes

Manuel Ting, 72, owner of Cebu Parklane International Hotel, was shot dead while driving his silver gray Mercedes Benz at a busy intersection in Barangay Tisa on the afternoon of June 22, a day after the attempt on the life of his brother Nicolas, 69.

Manuel’s body bore at least 11 gunshot wounds, four of them in the head. Police recovered at least 22 9mm shells from the crime scene.

He was rushed to the Chong Hua Hospital where attending doctors pronounced him officially dead at 7:35 p.m.

Manuel owned other businesses including the Abced System Corp. along N. Bacalso Avenue, a dealer of electrical and other hardware products. He just left the said establishment and was driving home to Barangay Banawa when the ambush took place.

A suspect, 44-year-old Ruel Velez, was arrested 13 days later outside an uptown mall.

Velez, of Barangay Ocaña, Carcar, was tagged by two witnesses as the lone assailant who shot Manuel along F. Llamas St. just outside San Jose Village in Barangay Tisa around 5:30 p.m.

After the shooting, one of the witnesses said Velez ran towards a waiting motorcycle driven by another person and they sped off. Velez, who reportedly did not wear anything to conceal his face, had been in the area since 4 p.m.

Police also identified Velez as the leader of a group linked to illegal drugs, guns-for-hire and robbery cases in Carcar.

Authorities are eyeing personal grudges and business as the possible motives behind the incident but Velez has denied any involvement.

The previous night, Manuel’s brother Nicholas was injured when he was ambushed by men on a motorcycle in Barangay Cabangcalan, Mandaue City.

Nicolas, owner of NS Royal Pension, was inside his Honda CRV waiting for a female friend to open the gate to an apartment she was renting when he was shot by two men on a white motorcycle.

The victim was hit in the chest, left arm and spine. He was rushed to Chong Hua Hospital and later declared out of danger.

Larry Ting, 54, who owed the victim P20 million, was arrested as the mastermind of the crime last June 29. Larry, the son of Nicolas’ late elder brother, was identified by Edwin Juab, founder of the notorious Trese Hudas gang, as the one who hired him to kill Nicolas.

Later, Senior Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe, then Regional Intelligence Division chief and designated head of Task Force Ting, and former Cebu City Police Office Director Patrocinio Comendador, presented to the media the four persons they arrested for the crime.

Aside from Larry and Juab, also arrested was another juvenile assailant and Jordan Miral, the driver of the motorcycle.

Larry is involved in a lumber business and was resting inside his house in Barangay Humay-humay, Lapu-Lapu City when personnel of the CCPO’s Investigation and Detective Management Branch led by Chief Insp. George Ylanan arrested him.

Comendador said that right after the ambush, they received information from Barangay Ermita that Juab was involved in the shooting.

The Theft and Robbery Section led by Sr. Insp. Bonifacio Garciano caught Juab last Monday evening in Ermita while he was playing mahjong. He later admitted his participation and told the police that Larry hired him to kill Nicolas for P100,000, which was later increased to P200,000.

After two failed attempts to kill Nicolas, he got in touch with the minor, a known criminal in Lapu-Lapu blamed for at least three shooting incidents in the city.

Miral was arrested separately in Barangay Ermita, Cebu City.

Buenafe said that Larry most probably wanted Nicolas killed as he could no longer pay his P20 million debt.

Larry denied the accusations against him but he was later charged with frustrated murder together with the other suspects. He posted a bail of P200,000 and was released with the approval of Mandaue City Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Marilyn Yap.

The minor was taken to Operation Second Chance while Juab and Miral, who were unable to post bail, were committed to the Mandaue City Jail.

Taiheiyo officials

ambushed

Late at night last October 22, an official of Taiheiyo Cement based in San Fernando town was shot dead by two men onboard a motorcycle in Mansueto Subdivision, Barangay Bulacao, Talisay City.

The incident was the second time that an official of the cement firm was ambushed in 2010.

The fatality was identified as Ernesto Silverio Porras, 49, assistant plant manager of the said firm. He died due to the gunshot wounds to the back, right arm, chest and both shoulders.

Porras was driving a white Kia Sorrento with his wife Ceferina, their 14-year-old daughter and two house helpers on their way home when they were ambushed.

Ceferina was also wounded in the right side of her chest while the daughter and helpers survived unscathed.

Neighbors rushed the couple to the Chong Hua Hospital where Ernesto was declared dead on arrival.

Ten empty shells of a 9mm pistol were recovered by police from the crime scene. The perpetrators are still unidentified as of now.

Two days later, the Talisay City police picked up the victims’ former store helper as possible suspect in the ambush. The man, only identified as a certain “Tata” used to work with the family’s softdrink wholesale business but was terminated recently.

Last June 25, Taiheiyo marketing manager Nestor Zamoras was injured after he was ambushed while driving his SUV in Barangay Kamputhaw, a block away from the Cebu City Police Office.

His bulletproofed Ford Everest helped him survive.

One suspect Orlando Sagnoy, 30, of Barangay Mactan, Lapu-Lapu City, was arrested by police after he was left behind by the driver of the getaway motorcycle. The driver was later identified as Roberto “JR” Tercero, 27, a resident of Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe.

After his arrest, Sagnoy revealed what he knew and helped police arrest Tercero and the suspected mastermind identified as Jerome Noel about two hours later.

Even with the arrest of the suspects, the motive behind the attack was not yet clear as Zamoras himself denied knowing Noel and only identified Sagnoy and Tercero as his attackers.

Sagnoy claimed Noel mentioned a woman as the reason behind the ambush, a matter Zamoras discounted as a possibility as there was no woman involved.

Police said Zamoras knew who wants him dead but he is hesitant to tell them.

Noel currently faces complaints of frustrated murder, possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition, and possession of marijuana. Both Sagnoy and Tercero were also included in the frustrated murder case. Sagnoy faces a separate complaint of illegal possession of firearms.

Loss of brakes leads

to loss of lives

Road accidents in the province also took quite a number of lives this year, particularly in the month of June. Almost all were blamed on faulty brakes, at least according to the offending drivers.

Iranians killed

in road mishap

What was supposed to be an outing ended in tragedy when a tourist bus filled with mostly Iranian medical and nursing students plummeted down a 30-foot cliff last June 13 along the Transcentral Highway in Barangay Cansumoroy, Balamban town. Of the people on board, 21 were confirmed dead, including the Filipino driver who was also the owner of the JD tourist bus, Jaime Batoon.

The accident happened while Batoon was negotiating a downhill section of the said highway in Barangay Cansumoroy which was about five kilometers from Balamban town. The bus was traveling from Cebu City.

Rescuers immediately arrived at the scene and rushed the injured to hospitals in Balamban and Cebu City, 10 who were critically injured had to be airlifted by two military helicopters from the Central Command.

The bodies of those killed were ferried to either Camp Lapu-Lapu or the Central Command headquarters.

Batoon and nanny Lotlot Yap, 38, were the only Filipinos on the bus. Batoon’s body was the last one to be retrieved from the crash site as he was pinned inside the vehicle.

But Yap survived with an eight-month-old Iranian boy entrusted to her by the parents who both survived the accident. The boy’s twin was among those killed.

Authorities believed that the driver was unfamiliar with the snaking road and lost control of the brakes, causing the bus to go over the cliff. Iranian embassy officials who went to the country managed to bring the bodies back to their country within the week. The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board suspended the franchise of all vehicles of JD Rent-a-car owned by Batoon for 30 days.

Rumors also spread that the bus was ill-fated for bearing the license plate number GWZ-666.

In Toledo City three vehicular accidents ended the lives of 21 people including six children and injured at least 65 persons.

Last June 22 a prime mover truck lost its brakes and the 20-foot container van it carried fell off killing four people on the spot and injuring eight others.

The accident occurred on the eve of the fiesta celebration of the Sacred Heart Church in Barangay Poog around 4 p.m.

According to the authorities the said prime mover which came from Cebu City was cruising downhill from Barangay Cantabaco when it suddenly lost its brakes.

The driver Joel Pepito, 31, of Minglanilla said he tried to maneuver his truck away from the vehicles parked along the road, but it instead resulted to the trailer and the vans, which contained empty sacks to be brought to Atlas Fertilizer Corp. in Barangay Sangi, falling off.

Fearing retribution, Pepito took another vehicle and went to the nearby Barangay Don Andres Soriano where he surrendered to the police.

On July 3 a bus of Corominas Bros. lost its brakes and smashed into a concrete wall along the road while negotiating a blind curve, killing at least 15 people including four children and injuring 48 others.

The bus, bearing plate number GVG-145, left Cebu City at 4 p.m. and was traveling towards the northern town of Tuburan when the accident happened around 5:45 p.m.

The right side of the bus was badly damaged after the vehicle crashed into the wall. Most of those injured and killed were on the right side.

Bus driver Diosdado Requizo had to be helped from his seat after the accident allegedly because of the shock and was brought to the police for his own safety.

He later said he chose to crash the right side of the bus into the wall to avoid hitting a school.Traffic investigator PO3 Julius Sanchez said 10 passengers were killed on the spot while five others later died at the Toledo City hospital.

The bus has a seating capacity of 53 persons, but Sanchez said about 60 to 70 passengers were on board the bus, several of whom were standing on the aisle.

The site of the accident is reportedly an accident-prone area and the concrete wall was built purposely to prevent vehicles from ramming nearby houses.

Noon of September 15, another accident happened that ended the life of a 10-year-old girl, a man and injured nine others.

Some of the students of DAS Elementary School were on their way home when a truck ran over a group of students and hit a motorcycle and a minicab in the highway of Barangay DAS.

The truck bearing license plate number GEK-214 owned by Ray Godinez Yuson and driven by Richard Villarmia was on its way to Cebu City from Toledo City when the accident happened.

A witness said that the truck was going downhill and the driver was not able to apply the brakes. The truck ran over the children and also hit a Honda XRM motorcycle with license plate number 6656-GP and a minicab with license plate number YCN-233.

One of the witnesses said that she saw the truck running fast and wondered why the driver did not slow down even if there was a sign that reminded the drivers to slow down and shift to low gear.

Rogelio Gabrillo, who witnessed the incident said, that tanod Jose Perez was helping three kids cross the street. When the tanod saw that the truck was not stopping, he pushed the kids to safety and managed to save two of them.

But one of the kids held on to the arm of Perez and both of them were run over by the truck. The child died on the spot, while the tanod was in serious condition and was brought at the Cebu South General Hospital in Naga.

Truck driver Richard Villarmia told the media that before the accident occurred, a vehicle ahead of him stopped, so he tried to apply the brakes, but he said that they did not work. So instead of hitting the side of the road, he decided to go straight. He denied he was speeding.

But SPO1 Anaclito Yang, traffic investigator said that based on what they saw at the scene it was obvious that the truck was traveling fast. He also said that it was not mechanical trouble but human error as the traffic enforcer who brought the said truck to the station said that the brakes were working fine.

The least serious of the incidents happened in Sogod town last June 24, when a Ceres bus fell on its side in Barangay Damolog. Two of the 12 injured people —a three-year-old girl and a 79-year-old woman— sustained fractures and injuries to the leg and arm. —/BRP (FREEMAN)