Teen tagged in cabbie’s slay killed in Navotas

MANILA, Philippines - An 18-year-old boy tagged in the killing of a taxi driver in Malabon was killed in Navotas City Monday afternoon.

Yiro Bonita was walking in front of a house in Tumana, Barangay North Bay Boulevard South at around 2:30 p.m. when an unidentified man shot him twice, case investigator Police Officer 2 Jumir Juhan said.

Bonita died on the spot. His assailant fled on foot, witnesses said.

He has been the subject of a manhunt by the Malabon police after he was identified as one of the three suspects who robbed and killed Gerardo Crias, 60, last week.

Crias, of Barangay Longos, was waiting for passengers at the corner of Maya-Maya street and Dagat-Dagatan Avenue when Bonita and his two cohorts approached the cabbie and ordered him to yield his earnings.

A witness told The STAR that Crias fought off and wounded one of the suspects before he was gunned down.

Responding barangay watchmen rushed him to the Pagamutang Bayan ng Malabon but he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Malabon police chief Senior Superintendent Severino Abad Jr. said Bonita had been arrested several times for a string of robberies in the city but managed to get off the hook for being a minor.

“There is a possibility that he was killed by people he had aggrieved but we are not discounting other angles,” Juhan said.

A source, however, told The STAR that the teenager’s handlers could be behind the killing.