Slain were Rodolfo Patinio, 34, of Olivares South subdivision in Biñan, Laguna; and former Marine soldiers Diosdado Santos, 390, of Rimville subdivision in Marikina City, and Eugene Radam, 34, with no permanent address.
Patinio, along with Faisal Marohombsar — the leader of the Pentagon kidnapping gang based in Central Mindanao — and Abdul Macaumbang, escaped from a maximum security detention center of the defunct National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force headquarters at Camp Crame last June 19.
Marohombsar was killed on Aug. 25 in a purported shootout with the police in Magallanes town, also in Cavite, during a rescue operation for kidnap victim Patricia Lopez-Chung.
Santos was also a principal suspect in the murder of police captain Baron Cervantes, self-appointed spokesman for the rightist group Young Officers’ Union (YOU) on New Year’s Eve in Las Piñas City.
Cervantes’ family expressed fears that the three suspects were executed to prevent them from unmasking the brains behind the captain’s murder.
Meanwhile, a visibly elated President Arroyo, who has vowed to break the backbone of organized crime, made an unscheduled trip to General Trias town in Cavite to view the remains of the three slain suspects.
The President, who recently declared she would minimize posing with arrested crime suspects amid mounting criticism, was roused by a telephone call at 6:30 a.m. from Philippine National Police chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., who reported to her the result of the operation against the so-called Mostrales-Patinio kidnap-for-ransom group.
Mrs. Arroyo immediately motored to General Trias where the sight of the three slain suspects lying on the blood-soaked ground greeted her.
"She was happy that at least this shows we’re doing something, especially those involved here were the notorious ones," Ebdane said after his talk with the Chief Executive.
The gunbattle which witnesses said lasted for about 30 minutes brought an early solution to the kidnapping of businessman Carl Anthony Penano, who was reportedly snatched on Monday by unidentified armed men in Barangay Mauyam near Silang town’s boundary with Carmona.
Ebdane said the so-called "tried and tested" formula — apparently another government euphemism for ransom payment — was employed in the operation against the suspects.
He said Penano’s abductors initially demanded P20 million for his safe release, but the family haggled until the amount was drastically reduced to P2 million.
The victim was freed inside a fast-food chain outlet in Tagaytay City following payment of the ransom on Tuesday.
When a motorcycle-riding man picked up the bag containing the ransom money, agents of the elite Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER) tailed him up to the gang’s hideout in General Trias.
As the suspects were about to leave the safehouse, the PACER agents opened fire, cutting down three men while a fourth managed to escape using the same motorcycle.
Mrs. Arroyo thanked both the PACER and the police for the early solution of the Penano kidnapping.
She said the journalists’ cooperation in keeping the abduction under wraps enabled the police to successfully conduct the operation and recover the ransom money.
Apart from the money, the PACER agents also confiscated a bullet-riddled Mitsubishi Adventure van, one M-16 Armalite rifle, three 9 mm. pistols, two fragmentation grenades, two cellular phone-activated bombs and two leather wallets, one of which contained a list of prospective kidnap victims.
Ebdane also tagged the slain suspects as being responsible for last year’s series of abductions involving victims Grace Ong who was seized on Oct. 2 in Ayala, Alabang; Jason Lim on Oct. 15 in Sta. Cruz, Laguna, and Angela Vina Pineda on Nov. 12.
The Department of Justice gave assurances, however, that the slaying of the three would not adversely affect the Ceervantes case.
Rae Cervantes, father of Baron, said the slain suspects were tagged by self-confessed triggerman Marines Sgt. Joseph Mostrales as the ones who conducted the surveillance on their residence in Las Piñas shortly before his son was shot dead by a lone gunman.
The elder Cervantes said the timing of the operation against Patinio’s gang was suspicious, coming as it did when the justice department was about to release the result of its investigation into the murder.
"I don’t want to personally speculate why the three accused were killed. They were the ones who actually conducted the surveillance on our residence before my son was shot dead," Cervantes told The STAR.
Cervantes’ lawyer Leonardo de Vera agreed with Cervantes’ observations, saying the latest development effectively blocked their efforts to identify the mastermind of the New Year’s Eve murder.
"We are disturbed by the fact that they (PACER agents) claimed that this is a shootout. It has an impact in the sense that the witnesses now in custody will be pressured," he said.
"By killing all three witnesses, there will be less witnesses against (Senior Superintendent Rafael) Cardeño," De Vera said.
"Like Marohombsar, police made it appear that Patinio escaped and was later killed in a legitimate shootout. It is very clear that there was an attempt to muddle the investigation in Cervantes’ murder," the lawyer noted.
A previous inquiry by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group indicated that Cardeño was the possible brains behind the Cervantes killing.
Mostrales alleged that Cardeño ordered him to kill Cervantes because the target had become a hindrance to their political agenda.
Rae Cervantes and controversial former civilian informer Mary "Rosebud" Ong also claimed that Patinio was recaptured by the police in the Magallanes shootout where Marohombsar was slain.
PACER operatives denied, however, the alleged recapture of Patinio.
Ong theorized that Patinio was eliminated to permanently conceal the real mastermind in the Cervantes murder.
"I believe that they were killed because they knew too much," Ong said. "This is the (tried and) tested formula of the PNP," she added.
Meawnhile, State Prosecutor Roberto Lao, a member of a three-man panel investigating the Cervantes murder, said the death of the three witnesses would not weaken the prosecution’s case because the complainant (Cervantes family) and the witnesses have already submitted their sworn statements.
The three, along with a certain Sonny Camacho and Cardeño, were the five respondents whom authorities said remained at large.
Lao said the panel, headed by Senior State Prosecutor Teddy Villanueva, had summoned Patinio, Santos and Radam, but they failed to appear in a Sept. 10 hearing.
"We cannot subpoena them anymore. The case is now submitted for resolution," Lao added.
In his affidavit, Mostrales tagged Cardeño as the mastermind. Cardeño, in turn, implicated National Security Adviser Roilo Golez and Council of Philippine Affairs secretary general Pastor Saycon as the chief architects of the Cervantes murder.–With Rene Alviar, Christina Mendez, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Delon Porcalla, Jaime Laude, Ed Amoroso