Malabon rob-slay suspect nabbed

Agents of the Northern Police District’s intelligence unit have arrested one of the four suspects in the robbery of a sea vessel parts store and the killing of its security guard four days ago in Malabon City.

Superintendent Sotero Ramos Jr., NPD-District Police Intelligence Unit (DPIU) chief, identified the suspect as Manuel Alcantara, 25, of Block 28, Lot 73, Area 1, Dagat-Dagatan, Navotas.

Alcantara was positively identified by Nathaniel Lizaran, caretaker of Protech Machinery Corp. at Block 18, Lot 63, Area 4, Phase 2, Dalagang Bukid street, Kaunlaran Village, Barangay Longos as one of the armed men who robbed their store and shot dead a security guard.

Ramos said that at around 2 a.m. last Monday, four unidentified armed men knocked on the gate of Protech Machinery being guarded by Eduardo Alvarez Jr.

According to Ramos when Alvarez opened the steel gate to look at who was knocking, one of the suspects shot him in the mouth, killing the guard on the spot.

The gunfire awakened Lizaran who was sleeping inside the store with his wife and children.

Just as Lizaran was about to get up, four armed men barged inside and ordered him and his family to lie face down. The suspects divested them of their valuables and scoured the store of expensive items valued at more than P350,000.

A follow-up operation resulted in the arrest of a suspect at around 6 p.m. last Wednesday in Malabon City. Lizaran’s description of one of the suspects fit that of Alcantara’s, an alleged member of a robbery holdup gang operating in Malabon and adjacent localities.

The NPD-DPIU operatives are tracking down the three other suspects and Alvarez’s alternate guard, Arlindo Borral, after he failed to return to work at Protech Machinery after Alcantara’s killing. – Pete Laude