P300,000 reward up for info on Cainta slay

A reward of P300,000 was offered yesterday for information leading to the arrest of the three robbers behind the fatal shooting of a one-year-old girl in Cainta, Rizal last Sept. 14.

Superintendent Gilbert Cruz, Cainta police chief, said concerned citizens in Cainta and Marikina City put up the reward to speed up the solution to the killing of Erica Charlene Guevarra.

"The peace-loving citizens are angry that a child had to die because of the greed for money of the (killers), so they decided to pool their resources to solve the case," Cruz said.

Meanwhile, Marikina City Mayor Maria Lourdes Fernando promised logistical support for policemen working on the case.

"Mayor Fernando vowed to extend gasoline and food allowances so the follow-up operations against the (killers) go unhampered," said Senior Superintendent Felipe Rojas Jr., intelligence chief of the National Capital Regional Police Office.

Rojas said many businessmen are investing in Marikina and Fernando does not want criminality to go unchecked in the city.

The baby girl’s parents, residents of Marikina City, had just withdrawn less than P100,000 from a local bank and were on their way to Cainta when three motorcycle-riding men opened fire at their Toyota Revo,

Erica, seated on the lap of her mother, Rosanna, was fatally hit in the head. Her father, Erick, 41, who was driving the vehicle, was hit in the leg.

Cruz said the robbers were also behind other heists in Marikina City, including the one on Aug. 15, which left businessman Edward Young, 24, and his driver, Glen Magbanua, 47, dead. Young’s wife, Sarah, 21, survived the attack and identified their attackers through the police’s rouge’s gallery.

Cruz said the baby girl’s killers were also involved in robberies in the cities of Makati, Pasig and Taguig using the same modus operandi.

Chief Superintendent Ernesto Belen, director of the Philippine National Police crime laboratory at Camp Crame, said they are still cross-matching the slugs and empty shells found in the Cainta crime scene and others forwarded by various police units in Metro Manila.

"We cannot say right away that the slugs and shells (found at) the crime scenes of the six incidents matched because our cross-matching is still ongoing," Belen told The STAR.