More criminals will fall — PNP

Police vowed yesterday to bust more criminal gangs in their renewed drive against organized crime nationwide.

Senior Superintendent Jaime Caringal, deputy chief of the Philippine National Police-Intelligence Group (PNP-IG), said their agents have been conducting surveillance operations against more crime rings, particularly those involved in kidnapping for ransom, car theft and armed robbery.

"Expect more criminals to fall in the coming weeks," Caringal said.

The intensified campaign against criminality was launched last week upon orders of PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza.

Caringal said each IG unit has specific targets which are expected to be neutralized soon. At least six more crime gangs are being monitored by the police.

"We have been gathering enough information and evidence against these groups to pin them down and charge them before the local courts," said Senior Superintendent Marcelo Garbo Jr., head of the IG’s counter-intelligence unit.

The two officials shrugged off allegations that they used extraneous force in the operation against the notorious Martilyo Gang, nine of whose members were reportedly shot dead late Saturday afternoon near Delpan Bridge in Tondo, Manila.

"There are no doubts that they are criminals. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has conferred with us and confirmed the illegal activities of this group," Caringal said.

Six of the fatalities were identified as Giovanni Jalique, Nold Usop, Dizari Piang, Abdul Theng, Ricky Ismael and Kasanodin Naga.

Only the remains of Naga, 37, and Ismael, 24, have been claimed by relatives.

He claimed bloodshed could have been avoided had the suspects not opened fire first, which prompted the lawmen to return fire.

Caringal said the Western Police District has taken over investigation of the shootout which also left one policeman wounded.

The bodies of the slain suspects were brought to the PNP Crime Laboratory for autopsy.

The encounter came six days after President Arroyo ordered the PNP to wage a vigorous crackdown on organized crime in a bid to improve the country’s image before the international community.

Police files on the Martilyo Gang, so-called for its practice of smashing jewelry showcases with a hammer, showed that three members of the group were captured in the rescue operation for a kidnapped Korean in Sariaya town in Quezon. Part of the ransom money was also recovered.

It was also the gang’s habit of setting off a grenade while escaping to prevent lawmen from chasing them.

Authorities tagged the gang as behind a series of heists victimizing pawnshops in Metro Manila.

Caringal claimed the group was also engaged in kidnapping for ransom, and was believed behind the abduction of a Korean resort owner in Pansol, Laguna last month.

Two caliber .45 automatics, six caliber .38 revolvers and a hand grenade were reportedly recovered from the scene.

Caringal said the group had been under surveillance following a tip off that they were about to rob a foreign exchange shop in Malate, Manila.

Caringal said he and his team of crack operatives waited for the suspects who were aboard a Toyota Tamaraw utility van with license plates GCX 815 at the foot of the Delpan Bridge in Port Area.

"As I signaled the gang’s vehicle to stop, two men jumped off and opened fire at us," Caringal said.

On Thursday, police drew first blood in its all-out drive against criminal syndicates with the arrest of three suspected members of the so-called Joel Medrano kidnap gang. Deputy Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. identified the suspects as Renato Abuevo, Arnold Ramirez and Rolando Velasco.

Meanwhile, Camp Crame officials held off autopsy on the cadavers of those killed in the Delpan incident as Muslim tradition considers cutting up bodies a desecration of the dead.

"We have already received a threat over the phone that we will be bombed if we ever conducted autopsy on the fatalities," a source said.