The police have arrested Valenzuela City’s most wanted person and Pasig’s second most wanted in separate raids Sunday.
Valenzuela police chief Senior Superintendent Ranier Idio said Juanito Santos, 42, was arrested in Marilao, Bulacan by a police team led by Senior Police Officer 3 Manolito Manalo.
Santos, who was at the top of the Valenzuela police’s list of 10 most wanted persons, faces charges of forcible abduction with multiple rapes at the Valenzuela City Regional Trial Court.
The police said that in February 2000, Santos abducted a 15-year-old girl in Valenzuela and turned her into his sex slave for almost three months.
The victim’s parents filed charges against Santos with the Malolos, Bulacan court but the case was dismissed because the alleged rapes occurred in Valenzuela.
The case was transferred to a Valenzuela court. Santos fled from his house in Bulacan and avoided arrest for more than eight years.
Meanwhile, police officers from the Pasig City police’s follow-up section arrested the alleged leader of the notorious “Gapos Gang” in a Noveleta, Cavite safehouse.
Eastern Police District director Chief Superintendent Leon Nilo de la Cruz said Armando Pulintan, 27, alias “Maki,” was arrested for robbery after he was fingered by fellow gang member Felipe Abay as the one behind a string of robberies in Pasig. Abay was arrested earlier in Barangay Pinagbuhatan.
De la Cruz said another gang leader, Noel Baqac, is tagged as Pasig’s most wanted and is the subject of a massive manhunt.
At the police station, Loreto Miranda, 32, identified Pulintan as one of five men who barged into his house, hogtied him and took his money, jewelry, cell phone and laptop computer.
Pulintan admitted the crime as he boasted that he had killed many of his victims. He said his first kill was a 14-year-old high school student from Rizal High School.
He also admitted to a recent killing of a Pasig City councilor’s aide.
De la Cruz said Pulintan admitted his gang is behind the robberies in Barangays San Joaquin, Bagong Ilog, Dela Paz, Maybunga, and Caniogan and in Cainta, Rizal.
The group reportedly also raped a lawyer’s daughter in Cainta. The police said the gang's members make it a practice to rape their victims, a charge that Pulintan denied.