Busy night for Taguig cops

It was a busy night for Taguig policemen last Thursday as they responded to three separate incidents, including a robbery at a National Food Authority (NFA) warehouse – all in a span of four hours.

At least two men were killed while two others were wounded in separate shooting, stabbing, and hacking incidents, said Inspector Eduardo Paningbatan, chief of the Taguig police Station Investigation Division (SID).

He said a 25-year-old painter was also arrested while two of his cohorts escaped while trying to cart away four sacks of NFA rice late Thursday evening.

Paningbatan said that at around 9 p.m., an NFA security guard caught Erwin Espiritu loading the sacks of rice on a tricycle. The suspect, of Champaca Street, Western Bicutan, is now detained and is facing robbery charges.

His companions, managed to escape.

Paningbatan said the incident was most likely an inside job.

An hour and a half later, police received a call that laborer Arnel Novero was killed by an unidentified assailant in Barangay Signal.

Novero, 18, of Sta. Maria Gutierrez Apartments, Bagong Bayan, Taguig sustained a stab wound in the left side of his body. The killer escaped.

At 11 p.m., Agustin Noriel Samante, 21, was hacked in the neck in Barangay Central Bicutan.

Samante, also of Central Bicutan, was reportedly attacked by a certain "Bodiak" who fled right after the incident. Samante was rushed to the Rizal Medical Center for treatment.

Shortly after midnight yesterday, a man and his son were shot by unidentified men in Barangay Western Bicutan.

Police said Romeo Alianza was killed on the spot by a gunshot wound in the left side of his body.

His son, Alex, was shot in the back and was rushed to the Rizal Medical Center.

Sketchy reports indicated that the Alianzas, who worked as jeepney dispatchers, were on their way home from a birthday party when the assailants pounced on them.

The victim’s friends, who were also at the party, told authorities that they only heard gunshots. When they rushed out to check what happened, they saw both father and son sprawled on the ground, bleeding.

Paningbatan said investigators have yet to establish motives for the three separate killing incidents.

Ironically, it was only last Tuesday when Taguig Mayor Sigfrido "Freddie" Tinga held a command conference with police officer-in-charge Superintendent Simplicio Bayan and station commanders to discuss the town’s peace and order situation.

Tinga said that while police are doing their best, the law enforcers can only do so much with a ratio of one policeman to more than 2,000 civilians in the town.

Tinga said Taguig has one of the worst policeman-civilian ratios in Metro Manila.

The municipal government said it has provided its policemen with communications facilities and vehicles to help them perform their tasks more effectively.