Marikina’s most wanted collared

A robber who was arrested after a shootout with Quezon City policemen Saturday turned out to be the No. 1 most wanted criminal in Marikina City.

Last Monday, the Marikina City police traced Ricky Butaslac, 32, at the second floor of the Quezon City General Hospital where he is being treated for a gunshot wound in the right leg.

Superintendent Sotero Ramos Jr., Marikina City police chief, said Butaslac assumed the name of Reynaldo Prane, apparently to hide his past.

"He concealed his true identity to escape a longer jail term," said Ramos. Butaslac was sentenced recently by Judge Alice Gutierrez of the Marikina City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 193 to 17 years and four months in prison for robbery.

Ramos served Butaslac at least 12 other warrants of arrests while in his hospital bed for highway robbery "so he would rot in jail."

Since he assumed command of the Marikina police last July, Ramos has made several attempts to have Butaslac arrested but the latter has always managed to escape. "He was behind the rash of car theft and robbery cases on FX taxi and passenger jeepney so we prepared an Operation Plan (Oplan) to neutralize him. But he was like an eel who was a step ahead of us each time we conduct an operation to get him."

Butaslac and an accomplice staged a daring robbery at the administration office of the Muñoz Market in Quezon City and took away cash and two cell phones.

However, responding policemen engaged them in a shootout. Butaslac was hit in the leg. He later identified himself as Reynaldo Parne to unsuspecting police investigators from the Quezon City Police District (QCPD).

But a source informed Ramos of Butaslac’s whereabouts prompting him to lead a team of policemen in rushing to the said hospital. He was accompanied by Superintendent Carlito Feliciano, head of the Station 2 of the QCPD.

Butaslac said he transferred his robbery operation from Marikina to nearby Quezon City last year amid reports that the police there were out to "silence" him.

Butaslac is now recuperating at the hospital under tight police guard. The QCPD will amend its robbery and Comelec gun ban violation raps against Butaslac, to include charges of concealing true name, which carries a stiff penalty.