MPD: Ex-soldiers could be behind Manila, Laguna robberies

MANILA, Philippines - The Manila Police District (MPD) on Monday said the robbery group behind the grisly killing in Paco, Manila and in Cabuyao, Laguna is one and the same; and worse, police believe they are former members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Chief Inspector Dominador Arevalo, chief of the MPD homicide section, was quoted in a radio interview as saying that they were studying the possibility that the two robbery incidents, four days apart, were connected. While saying that the killers were former soldiers, Arevalo refused to divulge any identity, pending follow up operations in provinces neighboring Metro Manila. The police official said that the manner and the severity of the attacks on the victims in both incidents led them to conclude that only one group could have been responsible. Arevalo said investigators are also currently cross-matching the shells recovered from the Paco, Manila robbery incident with those from the Cabuyao massacre. In a related development, the two MPD policemen, who responded but were shot dead in the robbery incident in Paco, Manila Monday last week, were laid to rest Sunday. The two MPD Ermita police station lawmen, posthumously promoted Senior Police Officer 1 Jose Ysmael Santos and PO3 Francisco Neri, were each accorded a hero’s burial. Businessman Alfred Dy was killed in that incident and robbed of his P1 million after he withdrew the money from a bank in Paco, Manila. Meanwhile, nine people including employees and a client of the Rizal Commercial and Banking Corp branch in Cabuyao, Laguna instantly died Friday last week after being shot in the head at close range. A tenth victim later expired in the hospital. - Mark Merueñas, GMANews.TV