6 ‘Bonnet Gang’ members slain

Six suspected members of the notorious "Bonnet Gang" were killed in an alleged shootout with policemen along Sergio Osmeña Avenue in San Andres in Manila yesterday afternoon.

Police said the suspects, who included former military men, were spotted during a routine patrol on board a heavily tinted Hyundai van without license plates, prompting the lawmen to give chase.

Superintendent Edgar Danao, Western Police District intelligence chief, said plainclothes agents of the WPD anti-carnapping unit chased the suspects but were fired upon by another group who were tailing the lawmen in a Toyota Tamaraw FX van.

Danao said the suspects in the Tamaraw van opened fire, triggering a three-minute gun battle which left all of the six suspects dead.

Police identified two of the slain suspects through their identification cards as Army Sgts. Cenando Lannu, 52, of Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, and Romeo de los Santos, of B-38 Welfareville, Mandaluyong City.

A police identification card bearing the name of Police Officer 1 (PO1) Sherwin Esguerra of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) intelligence unit was also found inside the Tamaraw FX van with license plates PVF-777.

Among the IDs found inside the vehicles bore the names of Edgar Sumido, Edwin Galang, Jose Diaz Blanco, Eduvegas Manatad, and Toro tabloid reporter Teodolo Abenador.

Lawmen also recovered two caliber .45 automatics, a baby Armalite rifle, a grenade and two black bonnets. A set of license plates XDL-469 was recovered inside the Hyundai van and sketches showing the location of United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) and Philippine National Bank branches, which police said could be the targets of the suspects.

WPD anti-carnapping unit chief Senior Inspector Leopoldo Mangilinan said the Hyundai van was reported by Abenador to have been stolen last Monday while parked in front of the Rizal Memorial Coliseum along Vito Cruz.

Mangilinan said his men were conducting "spotting operations" on suspicious vehicles when they saw the Hyundai van with the same description pass them by.

"The (Hyundai) van even sped away when (it was) signaled (by my men) to stop," Mangilinan said.

He said policemen chased the speeding van but unknown to the pursuing lawmen, another group of suspects was trailing them and started firing, triggering the shootout.

Mangilinan said the suspects in the Hyundai van also fired at the policemen.

"We radioed for assistance from the headquarters which flashed an alarm to the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) which was on patrol within the vicinity," Mangilinan said in Filipino.

President Arroyo arrived at the scene of the shootout and congratulated WPD director Chief Superintendent Pedro Bulaong "for a job well done."

"This should serve as a warning to all criminals," Mrs. Arroyo said as she took the opportunity to speak with the people in the area.

She also talked with an eyewitness, 19-year old Al Talampas, who denied claims that the incident was a rubout.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., who led other ranking police officials at the scene, said the suspects could either be members of a carnap or kidnap gang.

"Judging from the carnapped van with heavily tinted mirrors and the high-powered firearms and bonnets recovered, the suspects could be planning a much bigger crime like kidnapping or bank robbery," Ebdane said.

WPD intelligence later confirmed that the slain suspects belonged to the Eliseo Cruz group, a criminal syndicate tagged by the authorities as among those behind the series of vehicle thefts, kidnapping and bank robbery incidents since it was formed in 1990.