Hired guns charge P20,000 per victim

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – Life in Central Luzon costs a mere P20,000, snuffed out with a down payment of P1,000.

This was the revelation of members of hired guns after they were pinned down by the police in a shootout recently in Barangay Mabini in Llanera, Nueva Ecija following their attempt to carry out another killing mission.

In a report to Central Luzon police director Chief Superintendent Arturo Cacdac, Nueva Ecija police chief Senior Superintendent Ricardo Marquez said the suspects Dennis Vilelia, 30, married and a vendor residing in Barangay Puting Tubing in Gapan, and Rafael Merez, 25, single and jobless, resident of Barangay San Juan in Aliaga, both in Nueva Ecija, are members of hired guns.

During questioning by the police, Vilelia and Merez admitted they were hired by one Renato Merez to kill Bernardo Martin, 51, a sales agent of a bottling company and a resident of Barangay San Ricardo in Talavera, Nueva Ecija.

The suspects, riding in tandem on a Euro motorcycle (5331-CU), shot but failed to kill Martin in Barangay Mabini in Llanera. The alerted Llanera police, led by SPO2 Edilberto Cruz, and soldiers from the Army’s 81st infantry battalion immediately pursued the suspects who engaged the cops in a firefight.

The suspects were arrested after Merez sustained a gunshot wound in his arm.

The suspects said that the mastermind who hired them to kill Martin provided them with the .45 caliber pistol with three loaded magazines and the motorcycle. They also received from him a downpayment of P1,000, under the arrangement that another P19,000 would be given them once they accomplish their mission.

The amount is reportedly the going rate of professional killers in the region, police sources said.

The suspects, however, did not disclose further arrangements in case their target survived, as in the case of Martin who was reported to be recuperating at the Premiere Hospital in Cabanatuan City.

Marquez, in his report to Cacdac, cited the suspects as claiming they were hired to kill Martin whom the mastermind claimed to be having an affair with his wife.