By Ronron
May 13, 2005
Police investigators are already closing in on the alleged killer of Aurora local daily publisher-editor Philip Agustin three days past the commission of the crime.
“Before night time today (Friday) until tomorrow, the investigation report might already by completed,” Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief General Arturo Lomibao told reporters yesterday at Camp Crame, Quezon City.
While Lomibao refused to identify the suspects, a separate police report from the Region III Police revealed the names of the suspected assailants who are now being traced.
They were identified as Boyet Morete, a known gun-for-hire, and Anuel Alday, an alleged municipal employee of Dingalan, Aurora.
“The suspects were seen using two motorcycles at their staging point at PONGS Videoke in Dingalan prior to their approach on the target (Agustin), wherein they pre-positioned themselves as early as 9pm (of May 10),” Region III Police Chief Investigator Supt. Pierre Bucsit said in his report yesterday.
Agustin, who is connected with Starline Times Recorder, was shot dead at around 11:45 pm last Wednesday at the house of his daughter in Barangay Paltik, Dingalan, Aurora.
Some neighbors “accounted the identity and action of the suspects,” Bucsit noted.
Morete is said to be responsible for the killing of a certain PO3 Pelaez in 1993 but the case was amicably settled. He was also the primary suspect in the killing of Private First Class Edwin Baldana at Dingalan on November 12, 2003.
Police investigators are eyeing two possible motives in the murder of Agustin. First is retaliation because of his hard-hitting criticisms against the local government of Dingalan. The other one is on his alleged involvement in the sale of parcels of land that does not belong to him./DMS
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Robbery-murder of Filipino-Chinese couple declared solved with arrest of 4 suspects
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
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
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Police monitors activities of three local men for possible involvement in murder of Japanese in Ilocos Norte
By Ronron
May 10, 2005
Laoag City, Ilocos Norte - The local police of Solsona town in Ilocos Norte is monitoring the movements of three local men who were among the six they invited earlier for questioning for possible involvement in the murder last weekend of a Japanese national there.
Solsona Chief of Police Chief Inspector Joven Aldos told Manila Shimbun in an interview Tuesday that the three were being monitored because of their claim that they left for another place on Friday night after having a drinking session with two other companions.
The three, however, are still not being considered suspects in the murder of Shinya Takemoto, 59, who was discovered by his wife dead already before dawn of May 7. Takemoto was found with multiple hacked and incise wounds inside his bedroom at their residence in Sitio Cabaruan, Barangay Mariquet, Solsona, Ilocos Norte.
“They were just being invited for questioning on the basis that the timing of their departure from the barangay is quite suspicious since it was on the same day that the incident happened,” Aldos said of the six jobless locals.
Aldos finished questioning the six, aged 22 – 24, last Monday.
According to him, five of the six men had a drinking session at the residence of one of the five in Barangay Mariquet from the afternoon until late evening of May 6, Friday.
When they called off at 11 pm, the three who are now being monitored left for another place, but still in the same village, where they decided to sleep. One of the three resides in that place where they slept, together with his mother.
Then, in the afternoon of the following day, May 7, the five, and another colleague, left for this city, located some 37 kilometers westward, to apply for work. (Aldos yesterday corrected the information he shared with Manila Shimbun during Monday’s interview. He earlier said the six immediately left for Laoag City on Friday afternoon after five of the six had a drinking session.)
Aldos said the six men boarded a Manila-bound bus at around 5:30 pm of Saturday.
Quoting the six, Aldos said they took the said bus at that time to avail of the free ride. Upon arrival at Laoag City forty minutes later, the six slept at the house of a relative of one of the six.
Then, on Sunday morning, four of the six went to a hardware shop in this city to apply as laborers, while the two others went to another shop.
After lunchtime of the same day, three of the six decided to go home to Solsona. The remaining three, who were the same persons who left for another place after their drinking session on May 6, followed on Monday morning.
“It’s hard to believe what they have said that’s why we will continue monitoring them, especially the last three who came home only yesterday (Monday) because they were the same group that slept together after their drinking session last Friday,” Aldos said.
According to him, the five who drunk last Friday were very intoxicated that night. One of the three who transferred to another place later that night is also rumored to have “tasted” illegal drugs.
But even if the six were familiar about the presence of Takemoto in their village, they claimed to have no reason to be hostile to the Japanese or to the latter’s family, said Aldos.
A check on Monday at the house where the three men slept yielded negative for possession of blood-stained weapon and clothes. It can be recalled that no weapon was found at the crime scene by responding policemen.
The mother of one of the three also confirmed that the three men arrived at said place at past 11 pm of Friday, slept there, and never left the house until morning of Saturday.
“The information we got from them is not sufficient to link them to the case. So we will continue to monitor their activities and to gather information from other people in the vicinity,” Aldos said.
He admitted that despite their questioning of the six, the police is still facing a blank wall in its investigation because of the absence of any idea as to the motive of the crime, and of any lead that would track down the suspects.
Aldos will await the result of the comparison test on the fingerprints of the six and the fingerprints lifted from the crime scene. The fingerprints of the six were submitted yesterday morning to the Ilocos Norte Provincial Police Crime Laboratory located in this city./DMS
May 10, 2005
Laoag City, Ilocos Norte - The local police of Solsona town in Ilocos Norte is monitoring the movements of three local men who were among the six they invited earlier for questioning for possible involvement in the murder last weekend of a Japanese national there.
Solsona Chief of Police Chief Inspector Joven Aldos told Manila Shimbun in an interview Tuesday that the three were being monitored because of their claim that they left for another place on Friday night after having a drinking session with two other companions.
The three, however, are still not being considered suspects in the murder of Shinya Takemoto, 59, who was discovered by his wife dead already before dawn of May 7. Takemoto was found with multiple hacked and incise wounds inside his bedroom at their residence in Sitio Cabaruan, Barangay Mariquet, Solsona, Ilocos Norte.
“They were just being invited for questioning on the basis that the timing of their departure from the barangay is quite suspicious since it was on the same day that the incident happened,” Aldos said of the six jobless locals.
Aldos finished questioning the six, aged 22 – 24, last Monday.
According to him, five of the six men had a drinking session at the residence of one of the five in Barangay Mariquet from the afternoon until late evening of May 6, Friday.
When they called off at 11 pm, the three who are now being monitored left for another place, but still in the same village, where they decided to sleep. One of the three resides in that place where they slept, together with his mother.
Then, in the afternoon of the following day, May 7, the five, and another colleague, left for this city, located some 37 kilometers westward, to apply for work. (Aldos yesterday corrected the information he shared with Manila Shimbun during Monday’s interview. He earlier said the six immediately left for Laoag City on Friday afternoon after five of the six had a drinking session.)
Aldos said the six men boarded a Manila-bound bus at around 5:30 pm of Saturday.
Quoting the six, Aldos said they took the said bus at that time to avail of the free ride. Upon arrival at Laoag City forty minutes later, the six slept at the house of a relative of one of the six.
Then, on Sunday morning, four of the six went to a hardware shop in this city to apply as laborers, while the two others went to another shop.
After lunchtime of the same day, three of the six decided to go home to Solsona. The remaining three, who were the same persons who left for another place after their drinking session on May 6, followed on Monday morning.
“It’s hard to believe what they have said that’s why we will continue monitoring them, especially the last three who came home only yesterday (Monday) because they were the same group that slept together after their drinking session last Friday,” Aldos said.
According to him, the five who drunk last Friday were very intoxicated that night. One of the three who transferred to another place later that night is also rumored to have “tasted” illegal drugs.
But even if the six were familiar about the presence of Takemoto in their village, they claimed to have no reason to be hostile to the Japanese or to the latter’s family, said Aldos.
A check on Monday at the house where the three men slept yielded negative for possession of blood-stained weapon and clothes. It can be recalled that no weapon was found at the crime scene by responding policemen.
The mother of one of the three also confirmed that the three men arrived at said place at past 11 pm of Friday, slept there, and never left the house until morning of Saturday.
“The information we got from them is not sufficient to link them to the case. So we will continue to monitor their activities and to gather information from other people in the vicinity,” Aldos said.
He admitted that despite their questioning of the six, the police is still facing a blank wall in its investigation because of the absence of any idea as to the motive of the crime, and of any lead that would track down the suspects.
Aldos will await the result of the comparison test on the fingerprints of the six and the fingerprints lifted from the crime scene. The fingerprints of the six were submitted yesterday morning to the Ilocos Norte Provincial Police Crime Laboratory located in this city./DMS
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Suspect/s and motive in murder of Japanese in Ilocos Norte still unknown
By Ronron
May 9, 2005
Laoag City, Ilocos Norte – Police is facing a blank wall in its investigation on the murder last weekend of a Japanese national in Solsona town, located some 37 kilometers east of this city, as probers still could not ascertain the motive of the crime and the identities of the attackers.
This even as the Solsona Municipal Station invited yesterday six men for questioning on their possible involvement in the crime because of their suspicious timely disappearance from the town a day before Shinya Takemoto was found dead by his Filipina wife at the couple’s residence.
Takemoto, 59, was discovered dawn of Saturday by his wife, Mary Jane, lying lifeless on the floor of their bedroom located at the adjacent unit of their residence in Sitio Cabaruan, Barangay Mariquet in Solsona.
He sustained 11 hacked and incise wounds and two fracture wounds all over his body, according to Solsona Municipal Health Officer Dr. Ruth de Lara.
“We’re like in search for a piece of needle in a hill of rice stalk. That is the situation now,” Solsona Chief of Police Joven Aldos described to Manila Shimbun the state of their investigation on Takemoto’s case.
The only ray of hope seen by the family of the victim is that police is initiating a move towards the identification of the suspect/s through the questioning starting yesterday of six jobless male neighbors of the Takemoto’s.
“We invited six persons for questioning because that afternoon prior to the incident, they suddenly left the town all together. We will interview them one by one to find out if they will disclose similar accounts (about their activity that afternoon of May 6),” Aldos said.
The six, Aldos clarified, are not considered suspect as of this time.
According to him, the six guys, age ranging from 22 – 24, are residents of Barangay Mariquet and separately live about a kilometer away from Takemoto’s house.
Although there is no information that they were hostile to the Japanese and to the latter’s family, police are not discounting the possibility that it could be their “trip” to kill the foreigner borne out of alcohol-influence.
Police learned that five of the six who were invited by police had a drinking session that afternoon. Then, at about 5:30 pm, they, and the sixth person, left together for Laoag City by boarding a bus.
Two of the six reportedly came home only last Sunday, while the rest arrived in the town only yesterday.
Initial questioning revealed that the six just wanted to apply for a job vacancy as laborers in Laoag City.
“They all denied involvement in the killing of Takemoto when we asked them categorically,” Aldos bared, adding that the six have no criminal records at the police station.
Nonetheless, their fingerprints were taken yesterday for comparison to the set of 20 fingerprints lifted at the crime scene.
Aldos said the results of the comparative tests of fingerprints will surely lighten up their job, but as to when it will come out, he still does not know.
The fingerprints were taken to the Provincial Police crime laboratory in Laoag City, together with the blood samples.
Meanwhile, according to de Lara, Takemoto was already dead six hours or more from the time she examined his body at 10 am last Saturday because it was already stiff. Mary Jane saw his husband’s dead body at 3:55 am.
Neighbors, the closest of them were some 50 meters away from the Takemoto’s, insisted they have not heard any sound of commotion on the eve of May 7. Mary Jane issued the same claim.
They also could not identify any person/s hostile to the victim, or to his family, because the Takemoto’s rarely go out or invite visitors to their residence.
The Takemoto couple started to live permanently in Solsona in May 2004, after staying in Japan for two years since they were married in Las Pinas City on January 2002.
Takemoto, who used to work as manager at a paper manufacturing company in Chiba prefecture, decided to stay for good in the Philippines because “he liked it here, especially the weather,” said Mary Jane.
Mary Jane is all praises for her husband, whom she described to be a rare Japanese man for being so kind and respectful to women and responsible to his children.
She said Takemoto was just confined to their residence when he was still alive, and was already happy drinking his J&B scotch whisky alone.
The couple survived even without having any business through the savings of Takemoto from working in Japan.
Takemoto is divorced and has three kids in his previous marriage.
His remains will be buried in Solsona./DMS
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