Slain QC rob suspects were ‘Kuratong Baleleng’ members

At least one of the six robbery suspects killed in an alleged shootout with Quezon City policemen Sunday night is reportedly a former member of a kidnap-for-ransom group that gained notoriety in the 1990s, a police official said yesterday.

Superintendent Franklin Moises Mabanag, chief of Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit of the Quezon City Police District, told reporters in an interview that one of the slain suspects is reported to be among the “remnants of the Kuratong-Baleleng” group. Mabanag, however, refused to divulge the identity of the suspect.

Police Officer 1 Lino Acedera of the Manila Police District, Mauro Lerpido, Franklin Violeta and three still unidentified suspects were killed by police officers from the QCPD-District Police Intelligence Operating Unit during a shootout in Barangay Doña Josefa.

Based on police records, Acedera was arrested in 2002 for kidnap for ransom but was eventually released from detention after the victim was allegedly bullied into not pursuing the case.

Police recovered from the six suspects some high-powered guns, hand grenades, a hammer, a metal saw, packaging tape and a gallon of gasoline.

Police authorities believe Acedera’s group was out to target a household that night after the two vehicles they used were seen suspiciously roaming the area.

According to Superintendent Marcelino Pedrozo Jr., chief of the QCPD’s theft and robbery section, investigators were still determining possible links between those killed in the shootout last Sunday and some of the recent robberies in the metropolis, including a brutal robbery-homicide involving a household in Talayan Village last week, in which the suspects killed the victims before setting the house on fire.

Meanwhile, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim’s chief of staff, Ricardo de Guzman, has set seven retired Manila police officers to monitor the attendance and activities of Manila Police District police officers still in active service.

The retirees will be under the supervision of Manila’s Finest Retirees Association, Inc. president, retired colonel Felicisimo Lazaro, Lim’s consultant on police matters.

The move was hatched due to Acedera’s reported involvement in recent bank robberies. He was reportedly assigned at the District Mobile Force Unit of the MPD. However, DMFU chief Senior Superintendent Bernardo Diaz said he has not yet met Acedera since he was transferred from his unit from the Sta. Mesa police station last March 15.

“I have only seen the transfer order of Acedera wherein he will be reassigned at the DMFU’s withholding section while on schooling, which is a normal police standard operating procedure when a cop goes on leave to study,” said Diaz, who has more than 500 policemen under his watch. He said he does not personally know Acedera except during his stint at the Sampaloc police station in 2004 when Acedera served as the station’s jailer.       – With Nestor Etolle