Suspects in Valenzuela barangay captain’s slay identified

Two suspects in the murder of a newly elected barangay captain in Valenzuela City last July were identified by witnesses through a rogues’ gallery, city police officials said yesterday.

City police chief Superintendent Billy Beltran said the suspects were identified at the city police station as Gerardo Litao, alias “Guillermo Litao,” and “Goying;” and Juanito Cabigao, both of Malolos, Bulacan.

Witnesses tagged Litao and Cabigao as the ones who shot Punturin barangay chairman Vicente “Benjie” Trinidad before a stunned crowd after flag-raising ceremonies at the barangay hall last July 30.

Litao and Cabigao were earlier arrested and charged by operatives of the Presidential anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER) but for the kidnapping of a Chinese national sometime in 1990. They were released when the case was later dismissed after the complainant failed to appear at the trial hearings.

Chief Inspector Danilo Bugay, city police investigation and intelligence chief, told The STAR, they are hot on the trail of the suspects. Bugay said the case buildup on the murder case has been completed and murder charges against the duo are already being readied.

Bugay said said they encountered Litao and Cabigao’s names while digging up records of kidnap-for-ransom (KFR) cases. When presented before witnesses in a gallery, they were positively identified also as Trinidad’s attackers last July 30.

Trinidad, 37, died on the spot from gunshot wounds in the head and nape. He was taken to the Sta. Clara de Montefalco Hospital in Meycauayan, Bulacan but was declared dead on arrival.

Valenzuela City Mayor Sherwin Gatchallian condemned Trinidad’s killing and has personally offered a P500,000 reward for information leading to the suspects’ arrest.

Records showed Trinidad was standing in front of the barangay hall as the flag-raising ceremony was about to begin when an unidentified man – later said to be Cabigao – pulled a handgun concealed in a brown envelope and fired a bullet into Trinidad’s nape.

As Trinidad lay dying on the ground, another suspect, reportedly Litao, came up and fired another bullet into the victim’s face before walking away. Witnesses told probers they were too stunned by the turn of events to immediately react.

The two suspects, with three others acting as lookouts, later commandeered a Mitsubishi L-300 van driven by Almario de la Cruz along Doña Elena corner P. Faustino streets in Punturin. De la Cruz was with his wife, Teresita.

The couple said the suspects alighted upon reaching Gate 2 of Vista Verde at the border of Caloocan and Valenzuela cities before boarding a tricycle.