Man tagged in lawmen's slay arrested

MANILA, Philippines - One of four men who reportedly shot dead two Caloocan City police officers Tuesday was arrested at past midnight Friday.

Jeepney driver Romulo Auditor was caught at a relative’s house in Fairview, Quezon City at around 1 a.m., according to Chief Inspector Ronald Perilla.

He said Auditor is reportedly one of the members of a gang allegedly by dismissed policeman Ernesto Castillo, who is also the subject of a manhunt for the killing of Senior Police Officer 3 Tom Perez and SPO1 Tirso Roncales.

City police chief Senior Superintendent Jude Santos said Perez and Roncales were slain when they discovered a safehouse used by the gang in an alley off Baluarte street in Bagong Silang. The gang men took the police officers’ M16 rifles, 9mm pistols and radios.

He said the stolen radios were already rendered inoperative.

Santos said Castillo and his gang are reportedly engaged in robbery, illegal drugs, and contract killings.

Last year, anti-drug operatives of the Northern Police District, then headed by Chief Inspector Bartolome Tarnate, encountered a group of armed men in the same area, where the police killed one of the gang’s alleged leaders. The group warned that they would take revenge.

Less than a month later, SPO1 Henry Escalaw, one of Tarnate’s men, was killed near their office in Dagat-Dagatan, Caloocan City.