FWD: PH: US Peace Corps worker & 9 Filipinos massacred; ex-cops/soldiers suspected
Steve Graw
By Nereo C. Lujan, PDI Visayas Bureau and Juliet L. Javellana@
SARA, Iloilo: The Presidential Task Force Against Organized Crime has
joined the hunt for the suspects in last night's massacre here of 10
people, including a US Peace Corps volunteer. A team of agents
from the task force, also called the anti-crime ''supercop,''
arrived here yesterday to beef up the policemen deployed to track
down the killers of Robert John Bock, 33, and nine others.
President Estrada sent the Philippine National Police chief,
Director Roberto Lastimoso, to Iloilo to ensure the swift arrest of
the killers. Mr. Estrada vowed that punishment for the killers
would be ''swift, certain and severe,'' according to a Malacañang
statement.
Also yesterday, Bock's body was flown to Manila, accompanied by a
medical team from the Peace Corps and by Supt. Felix Mucheda, a member
of Task Force Bock that Malacanang created to speed up the arrest of
the Sara killers.
The President also assured the US Embassy in Manila that the
Philippine government would seek justice for the death of Bock, a
fisheries expert from New York who worked with the coastal resource
management program of the municipal government of Concepcion, Iloilo.
The PNP Criminal Investigation Group has filed multiple murder
charges against Ricky Braga, a member of the notorious robbery gang
Ilonggo Group, his brother Feliciano alias Boboy, Ernesto ''Taboy''
Prieto alias Danilo Vargas, Jester Longno, and a fifth man who
remained unidentified. The complaint was lodged with the Sara
Municipal Circuit Trial Court by Supt. Conrado Peregrino, PNP-CIG
director for Western Visayas.
Yesterday afternoon, police captured Prieto in Barangay Ferrariz,
Ajuy town, 92 kilometers northeast of Iloilo City. The arrest was
confirmed to the Inquirer by Chief Supt. Ricardo de Leon, Western
Visayas PNP director. Prieto was asked to identify areas where his
cohorts could have hidden. He was detained in Camp Jalandoni in
Sara, headquarters of the 3rd Iloilo provincial mobile group of the
PNP.
Longno, a resident of Ajuy, was arrested Thursday morning and was
found to be positive for gunpowder residues in both hands. He was
arrested by a team led by former Sara Mayor Neptali Salcedo.
Longno appeared either drunk or high on drugs when caught.
Yesterday afternoon, Longno tested positive for drugs.
Superintendent Peregrino said the PNP-CIG had to file the case as
soon as possible so the municipal trial court judge could immediately
issue arrest warrants for the rest of the suspects.
Braga, who is from Barangay Bacabac, where the massacre happened,
is already facing murder and frustrated murder charges before the
Iloilo Regional Trial Court, and a robbery case before the Mandaluyong
City RTC, according to police. He was a main suspect in the
kidnapping of a certain Mr. Tan in Quezon City in 1997. Braga led
his three companions in killing the 10 people between 7 and 8 p.m.
Wednesday in Barangay Bacabac, Sara after a drinking party to
celebrate Vargas's birthday.
A fifth unidentified man was seen drinking with them an hour
before the massacre started, but police investigators were still
trying to find out if the fifth man had any participation in the
crime.
The Ilonggo Group, composed mostly of discharged policemen and
Army soldiers, is believed to be behind a string of kidnapping cases
and robberies in Metro Manila. It is headed by a certain Tikboy
Laxamana, a discharged Philippine Constabulary soldier.
Lacson interested
The task force team came directly to Sara and was briefed on the
manhunt by Senior Supt. Eduardo Jaymalin, leader of Task Force
Bock. ''From the start, Chief Supt. (Panfilo) Lacson was already
interested in this case,'' said Senior Supt. Wilfredo Blanco, chief of
the directorial staff of the PNP in Western Visayas and spokesperson
of Task Force Bock. He was referring to the chief of the anti-crime
task force.
Armed and dangerous
The PNP in Western Visayas distributed to Iloilo police stations
and media offices Braga's pictures and information on his criminal
records. Braga, 27, is described to be of medium build and about
5-foot-7. The three other suspects are believed to be armed with
an M16 armalite rifle, a .45 pistol and a .38 revolver.
Negros police are closely watching the coastal areas in the
province and have set up checkpoints in strategic parts of Cadiz
City and the nearby northern towns of E.B. Magalona, Victorias and
Manapla as the possible entry points of the killers, since Sara is
near these areas.
''The President has sent General Lastimoso to Iloilo,'' said
Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora. Lastimoso is scheduled to fly
to Iloilo today.
Killed with Bock were his driver Jose Garcia; Coca-Cola Bottlers
employees Jonathan Sotic and Francisco Castroverde; Iloilo Electric
Cooperative III employees Roberto Pasten, Elvis Liamsin, Warlito
Aventurado and Juliocito Aspera; and Eduardo Sortigosa and his wife
Angela. The four Ileco III employees were killed outside their
vehicles, according to investigators. The others were killed either in
their vehicles or after staggering out onto the roadside.
Never again
In a radio interview yesterday, the President expressed optimism
the killers would be arrested before the day was over. ''The
perpetrators of this inhuman crime should not be allowed to menace
society again,'' Mr. Estrada said.
Zamora himself downplayed the Iloilo massacre and called it ''an
isolated incident'' committed by drug-crazed criminals. He also
dismissed fears that the killing of the 10 could be related to last
week's bombing of American embassies abroad where hundreds of people
were killed. ''At least from the report of General Lastimoso, it's
really an isolated incident,'' he said.
Lastimoso ordered the Western Visayas police to ''capture at all
costs and at the soonest time possible'' the remaining four
suspects. In a directive to police regional director Chief Supt. De
Leon, Lastimoso ordered an intensified manhunt and a blockade of all
possible exits to ensure the killers would not be able to leave the
province. He also called for the deployment of foot and mobile
patrols.
In Washington, D.C., US Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan
yesterday deplored Bock's killing. Gearan expressed sadness and
outrage at the murder of Bock, who had served in the Philippines since
April 1997. ''All of us at the Peace Corps are profoundly saddened
by Robert Bock's tragic death,'' Gearan said. ''He embodies the
highest ideals of the Peace Corps and was an outstanding
volunteer.'' Before joining the Peace Corps, Bock was a marine
scientist with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
With reports from Raj Padilla, Carla P. Gomez, PDI Visayas