Ermita ‘car thieves’ killed by rivals?

The Manila police is looking into the possibility that a crime gang was behind the death of three alleged car thieves whose bodies were found inside a stolen Suzuki Vitara sports utility van in Malate, Manila last Thursday.

Chief Inspector Juanito Taluban, head of the Western Police District Homicide Division, said that while the three appeared to have been liquidated by vigilantes, they do not rule out the possibility that the killing was a handiwork of a crime group.

Taluban said this gang could have been in competition with the victims in carnapping activities. He said the gang could have made the killings appear as a job of vigilantes to mislead investigators.

"We are considering all angles in this case," said Taluban, noting that "they are coordinating with their families to get a clear picture of their identities and the people who killed them."

This developed as relatives of the alleged car thieves identified them and claimed their corpses from the Tres Amigos funeral parlor in Paco, Manila.

Arnel Saldo, supervisor of the funeral parlor, said the fatalities were identified as Joanefri Vargas, 24, of Antipolo City; Joel de Luna, 32, and Anthony Sales, both of Marikina City.

Relatives of Vargas and De Luna told reporters that the two were last seen alive in the afternoon of Thursday, hours before their bodies were found inside the van abandoned at the corner of J. Nakpil and Vasquez streets in Ermita.

The relatives, however, have yet to disclose to the police the circumstances of their slain relatives.

"Sabi nung kamag-anak ni Anthony Santos, huli raw nilang nakita yan noon pang March 30. Hindi na nila alam kung anong mga aktibidades n’ya (According to the relatives of Anthony Santos, he was last seen on March 30 and they were not aware of his doings)," Saldo told The STAR in a telephone interview.

The three men bore strangulation marks and welts on their necks and wrists, similar to those also found on three other dead men believed to have been victims of a vigilante group.

Cardboard signs saying pag holdaper patay (Holduppers will be killed); huwag magnakaw (Don’t rob); holdaper kami (We are holduppers) hung from the victims’ necks.

Alleged vigilantes first struck on March 5 by killing Silverio Amoyan, who allegedly preyed on tourists in the tourist belt. His body was dumped in front of a shopping mall, with a cardboard sign saying turista wag holdapin (Don’t rob tourists) around his neck.

The following week, the bodies of Uric Lalic and Ramon Artigas, said to have been also preying on tourists were dumped on Aldegoa street.