By Ronron
May 13, 2005
The robbery and murder of a Filipino-Chinese couple last week in Quezon City was declared solved on Friday by the Philippine National Police (PNP) after the arrest this week of four suspects involved in the crime who are believed to be members of the Waray-waray gang.
PNP Chief Gen. Arturo Lomibao presented to the media yesterday in Camp Crame, Quezon City the arrested suspects, identified as Gerson Garcia, Gener Castro, Danilo Milante, and Erlinda Lachica.
The group was positively identified by three witnesses as the ones who robbed and shot to death Ephraim and Wendalyn Young last May 5 after the couple came out from China Bank on Araneta Avenue, Quezon City.
“The families of the two victims are very happy that the police is doing its best on this case and have been able to do a speedy investigation on the matter,” said Frederick Young, elder brother of Ephraim.
The Young couple left a two-year-old daughter.
The suspects were arrested on separate occasions by elements of the Traffic Management Group (TMG) and Central Police District (CPD), beginning with Garcia last Tuesday.
Castro and the rest were nabbed on the following day.
“The arrest of the suspects is based on the information of a concerned citizen, and the positive identification by our witnesses (vendors stationed at the crime scene),” TMG Director Chief Superintendent Ricardo Quinto told reporters during the presentation of the suspects.
Quinto bared that when Garcia was arrested, he was in possession of a caliber .45 pistol, which is believed to be the same weapon he used to shot the Young couple, and three sachets of suspected methamphetamine hyrdrochloride (shabu). Police recovered also from him a motorcycle that he used as a getaway vehicle after the crime. Police learned later that said motorcycle, a black Yamaha 125, was carnapped on February 5 of this year.
The TMG chief also disclosed that Castro served as driver of the other getaway vehicle, an owner-type jeepney; Milante as the look-out; and Lachica as the suspected financier of the gang.
According to Quinto, Garcia and Castro have records of being arrested a few years back by the CPD because of a robbery case (akyat-bahay).
The two also claimed of getting for each other a P150,000 share of the total amount they got from the Young couple, believed to be over P300,000. But police no longer found any money from the two.
Quinto said four other cohorts of the arrested persons, including their leader identified as Noli Casuela, remain at large as of yesterday. One of the four is a woman, identified only as Alma, who served as tipster at the time of commission of the crime.
“The modus operandi of the gang is they use a woman tipster who is tasked to go to the bank to pinpoint a target. Then, if she finds a target, she calls their players who will execute the hold-up, which is what happened to the Young couple,” Quinto said.
The informant will receive the P100,000 cash reward that the Filipino-Chinese business community put up and offered following the arrest of the four suspects.
The same group will also donate to the PNP 10 motorcycles as a sign of gratitude for the speedy solution of the Young case./DMS
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