Contract killers’ haven started as shantytown

MANILA, Philippines - Paradise Village in Barangay Tonsuya, Malabon City, known by law enforcers as a haven for contract killers, started as a shantytown in the 1970s, a city official said yesterday.

Squatters started occupying more than 50 hectares of idle land, most of which was owned by the city government and the remainder by private individuals.

“Those who arrived ahead of the others organized themselves and made money through illegal electric and water connections and by selling rights to those who want to put up shanties. Later they got into protection racket,” the official, who asked not be identified, said.

In June, police conducted a series of raids on Fiovi Homes in Paradise Village after Norberto Sabarillo was identified as one of the men who reportedly killed Barangay 12, Caloocan councilor Conrado Cruz last year.

Before former Caloocan police chief Senior Superintendent Ariel Arcenas was transferred to San Juan, he was investigating the murders of at least three barangay councilors in north Caloocan.

He told The STAR then that some of the suspects were based in Malabon.

Police informants who were shown photos of the suspects in the killings identified two suspects as Malabon residents.

Money, politics 

The official said the masterminds – reportedly politicians – hire middlemen to contact the guns for hire.

He said there are several groups operating inside Paradise Village and most of them know each other.

“They even borrow personnel or guns depending on the requirements of the ‘job,’” he said.

The source said some of the hired guns come from Visayas and Mindanao, “and a good number of them were former members of the Alex Boncayao Brigade,” an urban hit squad of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Malabon police chief Senior Superintendent Severino Abad Jr. said the killings happen mostly outside of his jurisdiction “so we cannot follow up on those cases.”

However, he said he is willing to cooperate with other agencies.

“These people are not ideologues. They are plain and simple criminals,” he said.