Police identify gunman of ex-cop, barangay chairman

MANILA, Philippines - The alleged gunman of a retired police officer and a barangay chairman in Caloocan City has been identified by the police.

A top official of the Caloocan police, who requested anonymity, said they have the identity of the suspect in the killing of Eduardo Balanay, 66, head of the city’s Department of Public Safety and Traffic Management (DPSTM).

The police official, however, decline to reveal the identity of the gunman pending his arrest.

Balanay was cleaning a vacant lot in front of his house at North Matrix Ville Subdivision in Camarin at around 6:30 a.m. on Monday when the suspect approached him and shot him three times.

Balanay died while being treated at the Commonwealth Hospital in Fairview, Quezon City, police said.

The suspect escaped on a motorcycle allegedly driven by Mark Anthony Francisco alias “Mac Mac.”

Probers recovered three spent shells of caliber .45 pistol from the crime scene.

Police said the suspect was the same gunman who killed Barangay 183 chairman Pedro Ramirez in front of a hardware store along Quirino Highway on March 25, 2014.

The police official told The STAR that the gunman is believed to be “working for an influential man” in the city.

“The killing of Balanay could also be related to his job as DPSTM chief but we are not discounting other possibilities,” he added.

The source said Francisco and the gunman are members of a gun for hire group operating in the National Capital Region.

He said the group was behind several killings in the Caloocan-Malabon-Navotas-Valenzuela (Camanava) area.