Guns-for-hire tagged in killing of Allan Pineda's half-brother

ANGELES CITY , Philippines  – Police are closing in on suspects in the series of killings here, whose victims included foreigners and the half-brother of Black Eyed Peas member Allan Pineda or Apl.de.ap.

“We have identified two suspects in the killing of Pineda’s brother Joven Deala and they belong to a gun-for-hire group,” Senior Superintendent Pierre Bucsit, city police chief, told The STAR. 

Bucsit said there was a “pattern” in the killings, noting that the suspect in the gun-slay of Barangay Pulung Maragul chairman Edilberto Cayanan, earlier identified as Harrison de Leon, belongs to a gun-for-hire group, too.

Deala was shot dead in his sports utility vehicle at dawn last Feb. 3 in Barangay Ninoy Aquino here.

“We have evidence to substantiate our claim that the two gun-for-hire suspects were the culprits in the Deala case, but we are gathering more evidence (for an) airtight case against them and will hopefully also lead us to the mastermind,” Bucsit said.

Bucsit said his men are tracking down a man known in the underworld as “Manok,” who is notorious for holdups and is a suspect in at least one homicide case. 

Last month, an American tourist, Jerry Melton, 51, was gunned down in Barangay Malabanias here just two days after he had arrived in the country.

Melton was the second foreigner slain here and the fifth murder victim since last December. Last January, a German tourist was found dead in his apartment in Barangay Plaridel I.

Late last year, an Australian investor at the Clark Freeport was also shot dead while driving home to this city. Two guns-for-hire were tagged but remain at large.

Meanwhile, an American resident of this city was shot in neighboring Mabalacat town Wednesday night, police said.

Superintendent Elvis Diaz, Mabalacat police chief, said the victim, American William Wolcott, 62, was reported to be still in critical condition at the San Rafael Hospital as of press time.

Diaz said Wolcott was with his live-in partner, Filipino-American Myra Mercado, 55, when one of two men shot him in the back of the head at the Camachile resettlement site where they visited Mercado’s sick sister.