Husband, wife tagged in Pampanga robs

ANGELES CITY , Philippines  – A husband and wife are now being hunted by the police in this city, after two of their accomplices were jailed in connection with the recent series of daring holdups in the tourism district of this city.

The element of surprise and a premature visit to jailed cohorts conspired to identify the couple and corner their two cohorts, the police said.

Chief Inspector Luisito Tan, head of police Station 4 here, said that one of the suspects named Wilhelm Flores, 36, was identified as the one who shot dead Nico Gozun, 17, in Barangay Pampang here on Saturday.

Tan said Flores shot Gozun after their motorcycles almost collided. “The victim apparently saw Flores with gun. Gozun dared Flores to shoot him and so he was really shot,” he said.

The other jailed suspect was identified as Elvin Valente, 35, and other still at large suspects were named as Angelito Geronimo and his wife Evelyn.

Tan said the four were pinpointed by witnesses as the ones who staged a series of holdups of local establishments, including the Sierra Madre, Opera and Asian Hotels, the Roman Massage Clinics, Coffee Outlet restaurant, and a Caltex station.

He said Flores and Valente were arrested at about 3:30 a.m. last Wednesday when they were on board a blue Honda Wave motorcycle, were taken aback by a police patrol car at the corner of a street at Doña Josefa Subdivision here.

“They attempted to make a sharp turn but their motorcycle fell on them, alerting the cops on patrol who also saw a .45 caliber drop from the waist of Flores,” Tan said. He noted that the same caliber was used to shoot Flores’s alleged victim last Saturday in Pampang.