Cops bust Bonnet Gang

Police arrested yesterday seven members of the dreaded "Bonnet Gang," barely six hours after their foiled robbery in Quezon City which left a security guard dead and seven others injured.

The suspects, who were collared separately in the areas of Las Piñas, Muntinlupa, Carmona, Cavite and San Pedro, Laguna, are now detained at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame as they await proper charges to be filed.

They were identified as Jose Tactacon former member of the Philippine Constabulary 45, Kenn Gomez, 23, Teotimo Juntalan, 38, Glenn Obatay, 41, Jose Cabrera, 39, Ariel Miranda, 35, and Emma Robles, 29. All are residents of Las Pinas, Muntinlupa, and Cavite.

Operatives of the Central Police District are now conducting extensive manhunt operations against four other alleged members of the group, and their leader, identified as George Gomez.

According to Senior Inspector Rodolfo Jaraza, chief of the CPD-Central Investigation Unit, Robles is the live-in partner of George Gomez, whose son Kenn, was also arrested in the operation.

"The group is responsible for about 90 percent of all bank robberies in Metro Manila. We have also confiscated all their firearms and ammunition," Jaraza said in an interview.

Jaraza said that the suspects have been under surveillance since May 26, a day after the gang robbed the Equitable-PCI Bank in Congressional Avenue, Quezon City.

He added the "Bonnet Gang" split into three groups when they reached Las Piñas City the other night and were later arrested through consecutive raids in their respective hideouts.

Recovered from the gang were four M-16 rifles, an M-14 rifle, a SPAS-12 shotgun, an MP-5 submachine-gun, a .30 caliber US Carbine, six rifle grenades, four hand grenades, three smoke bombs, an Anfra utility vehicle (TAK-814), and the groups trademark black bonnets.

Investigators said the group’s latest bank robbery attempt at the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) branch on Quezon Avenue was foiled because security guards of the bank’s armored vehicle fought back.

Simplicio Velaya, a guard at the said bank, was killed after sustaining gunshot wounds on the head during a brief shootout with the robbers. Seven others – three other guards, two civilians, and two robbers – were also injured in the incident.

The gang, on board three vehicles, tailed one of the bank’s armored vehicle from Makati City all the way to the UCPB. As the armored car parked in front of the bank, the gunmen alighted from their vehicles and announced the heist. This triggered a shootout with the security guards, which lasted about three minutes. In the process, Velaya was hit in the head, while Pepito Cepeon and Warlito Gumogda, also guards at the bank, suffered bullet wounds in the body.

Stray bullets hit Gloria Reyes, a bank client, and Ronnie Adipuin, reportedly a UCPB teller. The suspects immediately left the scene, but failed to divest the bank of cash.