Gun-for-hire leader, 4 others arrested

Ormoc City – An alleged leader of a dreaded gun-for-hire who is wanted in Cebu province for a series of crimes there was arrested by local police in his residence past 1 p.m. on Saturday, in Osco compound Barangay Ipil.

Ormoc City police director Senior Superintendent Wilson Caubat, who headed the arrest, identified the suspect as Marlito Montero Jr., 23, married, jobless, and a resident of the said place. Montero was arrested by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by Judge Edito Enemegio, of RTC Branch 25, of Danao City, Cebu.

Also arrested with Montero were his suspected cohorts Ojie Pajaron, 25, single, a resident of Barangay Abijao, Villaba, Leyte, who yielded a homemade caliber .357 revolver with three live ammos; Ronaldo Mesias, 25, a resident of Isla Verde, District 26, Edwin Cabudlay, 21, single; and John Yahut  Wagas, 18, single, all residents of World Vision Village in Barangay Ipil.

Caubat said the suspect’s warrant of arrest was in connection with the shooting of a security of the mayor of Tudela town in Camotes Cebu province. He said the PNP office in Cebu sent him the warrant of arrest of the suspect who was believed to be hiding in his residence here after committing the crime in the said town early this year. Caubat believed that the four other persons arrested during the suspect’s arrest were his partners in his criminal activity. 

The suspect, in an interview, however, denied the allegations claiming if there was somebody to be arrested it should have been the man whom he allegedly shot. He said the man, who he denied knowing him, hurled a handgrenade in their rented house in Tudela destroying all their belongings inside.