Police solve slay of Chinese trader

Police announced yesterday the solution of the slaying of a Chinese businesswoman in Quiapo, Manila last week with the arrest yesterday of five members of a robbery gang composed of Muslim youths.

Manila Police District (MPD) director Chief Superintendent Pedro Bulaong presented to media the five suspects identified as Banny Dagandan, 20; Jahaimen Manyag, 20; Ader Monte, 21; Sainoden Mohammed Ali, 25; and Hassanor Maruhom, 25.

Witnesses positively identified Maruhom as the one who shot Tan Bing, 22, inside the Ace Twilight electronics store along Quezon Boulevard in Quiapo last June 20. The witnesses also pointed to Ali as the lookout.

The victim managed the store with her husband Modesto Go, who was not around at the time of the crime.

The five were earlier arrested by the police for illegal possession of deadly weapons during saturation drive along R. Hidalgo street in Quiapo. During character verification, homicide probers were tipped off that the group was responsible for robbing mostly Chinese traders.

Losing no time, Homicide Section head Chief Inspector Alejandro Yanquiling Jr. gathered his witnesses in the Tan’s slaying, resulting in the positive identification of the gunman and his lookout.

Yanquiling said the victim could have been killed to prevent her from pursuing her complaint against a robbery group. It was gathered that the victim was robbed a day before she was killed. Having taken a good look at the suspects, the woman filed a complaint against the suspects.

Officer-on-case SPO3 Edison Bertoldo said murder charges will be filed against the gunman and his lookout, as the victims of the robbery group are requested to identify the suspects who are now detained at the MPD holding jail.

The five suspects, however, denied the allegations against them, saying they were earlier informed by Sta. Cruz policemen that they were being arrested for vagrancy only.

Meanwhile, Bulaong also announced the arrest of a remnant of the notorious "Harurot Gang," allegedly responsible for the slaying of two Manila policemen in 2004.

Joey Quimpo, 22, of Pandacan, Manila, was arrested in Taguig City yesterday by operatives of the MPD’s Beat Patrol Unit on the strength of a warrant of arrest issued by Judge Reynaldo Aljambra of Regional Trial Court Branch 53.

Quimpo is tagged as the primary suspect in the shooting of PO1 Michael Corpuz and SPO1 Cayabyab in San Marcelino and Pandacan, respectively.

The Harurot Gang, which robs drugstores, gasoline stations and money exchange shops, is notorious for shooting responding policemen, according to Bulaong.