4 ex-NPAs charged for rob-slay

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna, Philippines – Murder charges were filed yesterday against four former New People Army’s (NPA) rebels for a P400,000 robbery-slay in San Pedro, Laguna last Friday afternoon that left two persons killed.

Senior Superintendent Gilbert Cruz, Laguna provincial director, said former rebels Brandy Gerona and his brother Chivas and two others, both still unnamed, were charged with multiple murder before the San Pedro court.

Cruz said the Gerona brothers and their two companions were former members of the NPA’s liquidation squad in Southern Tagalog before they formed a gun-for-hire syndicate.

Superintendent Kirby Kraft, officer-in-charge of the San Pedro police, said the Geronas were positively identified by eyewitnesses through the police rogues’ gallery as the ones who shot dead Reginaldo Tanyag, 29, a son of the owner of the La Felonia Scrap dealer, and his uncle, Noel Natividad, 40, the firm’s secretary.

He said the victims were on board a black Honda Civic and had just come from a bank when they were attacked by four armed men in Barangay San Antonio, San Pedro.