4 suspects in ‘rescue’ of Chinese drug convicts in police custody

MANILA, Philippines - Four more suspects in the “rescue” of three Chinese drug convicts in Cavite last Feb. 20 have been taken into police custody, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Leonardo Espina said yesterday.

They were identified as William Sabenario; Ariel Bondaon, alias Bokbok; Hadji Berongues; and Randy Abunda, 21.

The suspects vehemently denied participation in the rescue of Li Lan Yan, alias Jackson Dy; his wife Wang Li Na; and Li Tian Hua in Trece Martirez City.

Espina said that Bondaon, a former member of the Alvin Flores and Ozamis robbery groups, identified their eight companions now being hunted by the police.

Arrest kept secret

The suspects’ arrest last March was kept under wraps in an effort to locate the Chinese drug convicts, Espina said.

Police conducted several raids on the group’s safehouses, but yielded negative results as of this week.

Superintendent Ronald Lee, acting intelligence chief of the NCRPO, said the arrest of the four suspects brought to six the number of persons arrested for the rescue of Dy and his companions.

The three Chinese and a Filipino inmate, Edgardo Pineda, were on their way to a court hearing last Feb. 20 when 14 heavily-armed men blocked their vehicle along Forest Park in Barangay Luciano, Trece Martirez City.

A receipt from a money transfer outlet recovered inside an abandoned L-300 van – the getaway vehicle of the suspects – led to the arrest of Rodel Cambonga and Leovino Fontanilla, said Cavite police director Senior Superintendent Alexander Rafael.

Cambonga who was arrested for driving without a license at a police checkpoint initially denied participation in the incident, but later confessed being the lookout in the rescue and pointed to Fontanilla as the recruiter of the group.

Cambonga and Fontanilla led elements of the NCRPO, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and Internal Security Office (ISO) of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to the four suspects.

Senior Superintendent Roberto Fajardo, head of the CIDG National Capital Region, said Sabenario was collared on the strength of an arrest warrant issued by Las Piñas Judge Erlinda Nicolas Alvaro for robbery.

Bondaon was nabbed in Baguio City by virtue of an arrest warrant issued by Quezon City Judge Rosa Samson for robbery with homicide. No bail was recommended for his temporary liberty.

Berongues and Abunda were arrested along with Bondaon.

Chinese freed for P10 M, but…

According to Fajardo, the group was paid P10 million to free the Chinese drug convicts, but the suspects only received P10,000 each.

They refused to accept a legal counsel provided to them by the Department of Justice (DOJ) as they insisted that they could afford to hire a private lawyer.

Fajardo said appropriate charges have been filed against the suspects with the DOJ and other courts.