Hired killers from Ecija tagged in Angeles slays

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – Police have tagged hired killers from Nueva Ecija as behind a number of killings in this city.

“I don’t think there are hired killers in this city. We have information that hired killers who have been operating in Angeles are actually based in Nueva Ecija,” Senior Superintendent Pierre Bucsit, city police chief, told The Star.    

He said other hired killers also seem to operate in parts of Tarlac.

“We have already extended our operations beyond the boundaries of Angeles because the suspects seem to be from outside our city,” he said, adding that he expects some arrests in a week’s time.

Bucsit said he is eyeing hired killers in some cases, including the killings of Barangay Pulung Maragul chairman Edilberto Cayanan last Feb. 28 and Australian Ivan Royal Brown, 65, an investor at the Clark Freeport, in Barangay Cutcut last November.  

Police though remain clueless on the killing of American tourist Jerry Melton, 51, who was shot dead in the tourism district in Barangay Baligabo last Thursday morning, only two days after he arrived in the country.

No suspect has been tagged, too, in the fatal shooting of Joven Deala, half-brother of Black Eyed Peas band member Allan Pineda, known as Apl.de.ap, in Barangay Ninoy Aquino last Feb. 3.

SPO3 Romeo Amarillo of Police Station 4 said another foreigner, a German tourist, was also shot dead in his rented apartment in Barangay Plaridel I last January.   

Mayor Francis Nepomuceno earlier had ordered the police to increase their visibility and intensify their anti-crime campaign.

Nepomuceno also directed the city peace and order council to draw up a plan to curb the killings.

“The government will not be cowed and will pursue this campaign at all cost, to give Angelenos lasting peace and order which they deserve,” he said.