Ex-Scout Ranger heads new Tarlac gang — cops

TARLAC CITY — A former Scout Ranger who was dishonorably discharged from the military service has been tagged as the leader of a robbery-holdup gang that has been preying on Tarlac businessmen for the past three months.

Superintendent Tito Bayangos, city police chief, alleged that Romeo Mapatac, 30, heads the newly formed syndicate which, he said, also operates in Metro Manila.

Mapatac’s name first cropped up here sometime between 1997 and 1998 after he shot an Army major, surnamed Loong, who happened to be his commander when he was still in the active service in Mindanao.

Mapatac was also accused of being behind the killing of a certain PO4 Orañes, inside a bus in the late 1990s.

Mapatac, a resident of Barangay San Miguel here but is a native of Nueva Ecija, was discharged from the military after he was implicated in illegal activities, including gunrunning, in Mindanao.

Authorities believe that the members of Mapatac’s syndicate used to belong to the disbanded Adalem gang involved in several kidnappings for ransom, drug dealing, highway robberies and illegal gambling in Central Luzon from the late 1980s to the 1990s.

Warrants of arrest for Mapatac, issued by Judge Bitty Viliran of the Regional Trial Court Branch 65 here, have piled up. They involved cases of highway-robbery, murder, car theft and illegal possession of firearms.

Since April this year, Mapatac and his henchmen have held up at least five local businessmen.

All of the victims were able to identify Mapatac through pictures presented to them by the police.

Bayangos appealed to anyone who may have information on Mapatac and his cohorts to "cooperate" with authorities.

With Mapatac remaining at large, Bayangos said "he and his gang will continue with their nefarious activities, which is why we need the citizens’ cooperation in having these criminals arrested and put behind bars."