P3.5 M of slain Canadian turned over to embassy

MABALACAT, Pampanga — This town’s mayor turned over to representatives of the Canadian embassy the other day some P3.5 million in cash of a 60-year-old Canadian, who was shot dead by suspected Aetas during an aborted deal on fake gold bars in a remote village at the boundary of this town and Bamban, Tarlac last April 20.

Some P800,000, also belonging to the victim, Larry Edward Parker, was reportedly carted away by his killers, whom Parker’s girlfriend, Melody Atalisay, identified only as Jimmy and Olgy.

Senior Superintendent Renato Soria, Mabalacat police chief, told The STAR that the representatives of the Canadian embassy were to take Parker’s remains yesterday.

Soria said Parker’s sisters were reported to have flown to Manila from Canada but were afraid to come to this town because of what had befallen their brother.

Parker was shot in the back of the head at a lahar sand quarrying area in Barangay Tabun while he was reportedly negotiating with the two Aetas the purchase of supposed gold bars.

Parker was found slumped dead inside his Toyota Revo.

While Parker’s killers ran off with an estimated P800,000, some P2 million was found intact in the trunk of his vehicle.

Police found P1.5 million more in cash in his room at the Sun Garden Hotel in Tarlac City.

Soria said Parker was a gold dealer who, together with his girlfriend, had been negotiating for weeks with the two Aetas, believed to be members of the notorious "Salaginto Gang," the purchase of supposed gold bars.

The gang has been selling to unsuspecting victims fake gold bars which they claim are part of the fabled Yamashita treasure.

Soria quoted Atalisay as saying that she and Parker talked with the suspects on several occasions in Bamban, Capas, and Conception towns, all in Tarlac, before the supposed final transaction last April 20.

Soria said two Aetas were recently arrested, but Atalisay said they were not the same persons whom she and Parker had negotiated with.

Mayor Marino Morales turned over the P3.5 million in cash to representatives of the Canadian embassy, led by one Inspector Michael Dalisim.

"The gold bar deal often turns up to be a holdup during the final negotiations, especially when the buyer discovers that the bars are fake," Morales said of the gang’s modus operandi.

The Salaginto Gang has been operating in communities at the foot of Mt. Pinatubo for years now.

"They present genuine gold to the prospective victim. They use gold-plated bars to lure their victims into meeting with them in a remote area (to supposedly) turn over more purported gold bars but they show up armed," Soria said.

The gang has gypped many businessmen and tourists, along with a governor in Central Luzon, but most of them have asked the police to keep their cases secret out of embarrassment.