Decena tags former business partner in ambush

MANILA, Philippines - Businesswoman Christina Decena yesterday alleged that a retired police official, her former business partner, is behind her ambush last Wednesday.

Decena declined to identify him but said their rift allegedly started from a P200-million land title that he refused to return.

Decena bared this during a press conference at the Manila Police District (MPD), which presented two suspects in the attack on her and her son – dismissed Police Officer 1 Henry Quinones and Edgardo Binalla.

Decena had just had lunch at a restaurant in Quezon City when two men on a motorcycle shot at them. Her son, Dan, who was driving the van, hit the gunmen’s motorcycle, forcing the attackers to flee on foot until they commandeered a tricycle and sped toward Manila.

The attack was caught on a surveillance camera. The arrested suspects are alleged members of a gun-for-hire syndicate, MPD director Chief Superintendent Isagani Genabe Jr. said.

During the presentation, Decena identified Quinones as one of two men who attacked her.

Another suspect, Police Officer 1 Melvin Waga of the Pasig City police, was identified by Decena as the man her former business partner had told her would “take care of her problems.”

Decena said she saw Waga when she was having lunch at the restaurant in Quezon City Wednesday. A witness saw Waga shoot at Decena’s Starex van and fall off the motorcycle when Dan hit it, investigators said.

Waga, who has not reported for work since Thursday, remains at large.

Tipoff

MPD Station 5 chief Superintendent Orlando Mirando Jr. said they received information through PNP TXT 2920 last Wednesday that hired killers, led by Quinones, were at the Gwapotel inn in Port Area.

The killers were reported to be in a Honda Civic and bearing long firearms, Mirando said.

When Mirando’s team went to the area, they found Binalla waiting in the Civic. They arrested Quinones about two hours after the attack on Decena.

Mirando said they found a police identification card Waga had left at the inn’s reception desk. The inn has a policy that all clients must submit identification cards, and all three suspects were reported to have stayed there on the eve of the attack, he said.

He added that investigators also found the certificate of registration of the motorcycle used in the ambush in the Civic.