5 car thieves, 2 robbers slain in Cavite shootouts

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna – Five suspected members of a notorious car theft syndicate and two robbery suspects were killed in separate shootouts with lawmen in Bacoor and Carmona towns in Cavite yesterday, authorities said.

Senior Superintendent Hernando Zafra, Cavite police director, identified four of the slain car thieves as Joaquin Sequin, Anacleto Trinidad, Arnold Causing, and Roberto Montano, all belonging to the so-called Ilonggo Gang.

Zafra said the fifth slain suspect is between 25 to 30 years old and has a “Guardian” tattoo on the right shoulder.

Chief Superintendent Perfecto Palad, director of the Traffic Management Group (TMG), said they got intelligence information about the suspects’ presence in Cavite, prompting them to launch a dragnet.

At around 3 a.m. yesterday, joint elements of the TMG-Task Force Limbas and the Cavite police put up a checkpoint and chanced upon the suspects aboard a white Mitsubishi Lancer with license plate ZEN-975 along Daang Hari Road in Molino 4, Bacoor.

Instead of yielding, Palad said the suspects sped off, prompting a running gunbattle between them and the police.

Zafra tagged the group in a recent gas station robbery in Dasmariñas town and a string of robbery-holdups in Metro Manila.

Police recovered caliber .45 pistols. A manhunt is on for other Ilonggo Gang members.

Meanwhile, two of five robbers who victimized a businessman in Carmona town were also killed in a shootout yesterday afternoon.

Police identified the slain suspects as Angelito Velayo and Alexis Bentulfo. Their cohort, a certain Gary Alfo, was wounded.

Police said the suspects robbed Jaime Restrivera who had just withdrawn P500,000 from the bank.  – With Cecille Suerte Felipe and Ed Amoroso