4 kidnap suspects fall, cop dies in QC shootout

Crack police agents captured four suspected kidnappers and rescued three hostages, but lost a comrade in a fierce four-hour gunbattle with the suspects in a densely populated neighborhood in Quezon City yesterday morning.

The standoff broke out at dawn minutes after the kidnappers, believed to be members of the so-called Esting Gang, freed their hostages after receiving the ransom money and police moved in to storm their hideout.

The gangmen retaliated with automatic gunfire to tear gas grenades lobbed by the policemen, turning the area into a virtual battlefield.

One of the four suspects was immediately captured. Three companions, however, fired at the policemen from their two-story wood and concrete house, setting off sporadic exchanges of fire.

Teams of police and SWAT members, wearing bullet proof vests and armed with automatic weapons, surrounded the house and cordoned off the area from the public, taking aim from behind cars and houses and rooftops. The crackle of gunfire sent startled residents fleeing.

A policeman used a megaphone to tell the suspects that they had been surrounded but they refused to yield.

National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (NAKTAF) head, Deputy Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.,identified the slain policeman as SPO4 Edmundo de Leon, who was shot in the neck and died while undergoing treatment at a hospital.

The arrested suspects, who reportedly surrendered after they ran out of ammunition, were identified as Francisco Cantero, Frank Garcia, Romy Figueroa and Rene Tan. They will be charged with kidnapping, a crime punishable by death, Ebdane said.

The suspects, who were handcuffed and stripped of their shirts upon their capture, bore tattoos of the local underworld group called Bahala Na Gang on their backs.

Authorities believed that the gang leader, identified as Ramon Go, allegedly a former enlisted Navy man, escaped at the height of the firefight along with some of his minions.

A massive manhunt has been launched for the capture of Go and other members of his gang.

Confiscated from the suspects were one baby Armalite rifle, one caliber .45 caliber automatic, one 9-mm. pistol, one rifle grenade, an undetermined amount of fake P1,000 bills and printing machines believed used to produce the bogus currency.

Police said apart from kidnapping for ransom and counterfeiting, the Esting Gang also engaged in car theft and robbery-holdup.

Ebdane said the assault on the gang’s hideout, located at Gen. Woods and Apollo streets in San Francisco del Monte, was launched after the kidnappers set free their captives — Evelyn Jao, 40; her son Aaron, 16; and their driver, identified as Rolly Tulado.

The hostages were allegedly snatched on Monday near St. Agnes School in Makati City where Aaron studies.

The abductors initially demanded huge amounts for the release of their captives, but were compelled to reduce the ransom to P500,000 after they were convinced that the Jaos were not really wealthy.

As agreed upon, a rendezvous was set at 4:30 a.m. in front of a convenience store along Mayon street in Quezon City for the delivery of the ransom money.

NAKTAF undercover agents who were already posted in the area saw a motorcycle-riding man pick up the ransom and tailed him until he entered a compound where the gang’s hideout was located.

"We did not move until we had established that the victims were released and secured," a police official said.

At about 5 a.m., the assault on the gang’s lair commenced, but the lawmen were met with heavy gunfire.

De Leon, whose son, a rookie policeman, was also part of the raiding team, was hit in the initial volley of gunfire.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr. commended the policemen who took part in the operation. "This will serve as a warning to other kidnap-for-ransom groups that the government is serious in its campaign against organized crime."

Lina directed the PNP to extend financial assistance to De Leon’s family even as he vowed to give the slain lawman due recognition, including a posthumous promotion.

Ebdane said at least 26 kidnap-for-ransom rings, including the Muslim terrorist Abu Sayyaf and the Pentagon gang, were still operating in the country.

Ebdane also revealed that NAKTAF has so far arrested 17 suspected kidnappers, 11 of them former and active members of the military and the police.

President Arroyo declared last week an all-out campaign against kidnap gangs amid a rash of abductions this year, with 79 people reportedly seized by gunmen nationwide.

"The best way to fight kidnap-for-ransom syndicates is to hit them even before they start working on their next victim," the President said in a speech wherein she also announced she would authorize the execution by lethal injection of up to 95 convicted kidnappers.

The Abu Sayyaf in the island-province of Basilan in Mindanao still holds American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Graham, along with over a dozen local folk who were seized to be used as human shields against pursuing troopers.

Another kidnap group, believed to be members of a lost command of the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, recently snatched Italian priest Fr. Giuseppe Pierantoni at the coastal town of Dimataling in Zamboanga del Sur. — With Perseus Echeminada, wire reports