CCTV footage helps catch 2 suspects in informant's murder

MANILA, Philippines - A video footage taken from the police’s close-circuit television (CCTV) camera led to the quick arrest of two men who allegedly shot a police informant in Quiapo, Manila Wednesday night.

Police said Jerry Buacan, 29, shot Ernesto de la Vega, 34, at around 8:15 p.m. at the corner of P. Casal and Arlegui streets in Quiapo. Ali Sultan, 30, allegedly acted as Buacan’s lookout. Both suspects escaped after the shooting.

De la Vega died on the spot from a gunshot wound in the nape. Police found a witness and brought him to the Manila Police District (MPD)’s Tactical Operations Center in an attempt to identify the suspects through footages taken by a CCTV camera installed at the corner of Arlegui and P. Casal streets in Quiapo.

The witness positively identified a man crossing the street right after the shooting as the gunman. The witness also pointed to another man riding a bicycle as the suspect’s cohort.

“You will notice from the footage that while people were rushing to the crime scene to make ‘usyoso,’ two men were observed leaving the place hurriedly, an indication that they could had been involved in the commission of the crime,” MPD director Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales told reporters.

Sta. Cruz police station chief Superintendent Romulo Sapitula and his men caught the two suspects only 30 minutes after the crime was committed, Rosales said.

“The immediate solution of the case is highly attributed to our CCTV camera installed in the area, which records all transpiring incidents 24/7,” Rosales said.

Through Rosales’ initiative, the MPD installed CCTV cameras in critical intersections and crime-prone areas in Manila. Police said the CCTV cameras, complimented by the global positioning system (GPS) on all mobile cars of the MPD, have greatly lowered crime rates in the city. Police response time was also lowered from seven minutes to just three minutes and 28 seconds.

Sapitula, meanwhile, said they are looking into reports that the victim was a police informant who had earned the ire of drug pushers. – Nestor Etolle