Police holding lead in trader's ambush

MANILA, Philippines – Police are hoping that it can solve the two-day-old ambush of a vegetable dealer in Binondo, Manila after they took into custody the gunman’s alleged companion.

In an affidavit of a police informant, he identified a certain “Tony,” a parking attendant, as the one who ferried the gunman in the ambush of Glenn Maranan, a 26-year-old vegetable dealer in a crowded flea market past midnight Monday. The informant said Tony himself boasted that the gunman rode in his motorcycle while looking for Maranan along C.M. Recto Avenue. Tony alleged that the gunman wanted revenge after Maranan seriously stabbed his brother. Tony reportedly met the gunman in a baptismal party.

The revelation compelled Meisic police station chief Superintendent Nelson Yabut to invite Tony for a confrontation with the informant. Despite Tony’s denial, the informant sticked to his affidavit and insisted that Tony had a hand in Maranan’s ambush.

“We are temporarily withholding the true identity of Tony pending his transfer to the homicide section of the Manila Police District which will conduct the interrogation,” Yabut said.            

Collecting payments

Investigations showed that Maranan, of Calamba, Laguna, was declared dead on arrival at the Mary Johnston Hospital due to seven gunshot wounds in the body.

Witnesses described his assailant as about five-foot-ten-inch tall, regular built, and wearing a red long sleeve polo shirt, bull cap and his face covered with a mask. He was armed with a .45 caliber pistol.

Maranan was collecting payments from vendors when the ambush occurred. Maranan supplied vegetables from Laguna to vendors in Divisoria market and collected payments at night.

Investigators initially ruled out robbery as the motive for the shooting since the victim’s cash collection was left intact by the suspect.

Police believe the assassin is a professional hitman since all the bullets fired found its mark on the victim’s body.