IN BAGO CITY
3 armed men arrested

Policemen intercepted and arrested three armed men, two of whom were reportedly recently released from jail, in Bago City, Negros Occidental, past midnight Thursday.

Supt. Armando Tubongbanua said troopers of the Technical Support Platoon of the Negros Occidental Police Public Safety Company were on visibility operations when they chanced upon a tricycle with three persons on board, in Brgy. Sampinit, Bago City, and one of them was noticed to be carrying a bladed weapon.

He added that he and Inspector John Joel Batus-batusan, who led the patrolling team, flagged down the tricycle, and discovered that the passengers, identified as Aris Chicoba, Michael Victor Vergara, and Ryan de la Torre, were also carrying firearms.

Seized were a homemade shotgun, or “sulpak”, with two ammunitions, and suspected dried marijuana leaves from Chicoba; and two homemade shotguns with four bullets as well as a bladed weapon, from Vergara and De La Torre, respectively, Tubongbanua said.

Initial police investigations showed that De La Torre and Vergara, who were recently released from jail, are also involved in the series of carnapping and robbery hold-up incidents in Negros Occidental, he added.

Tubongbanua said he will coordinate with the Bacolod City Police Office to check if Chicoba was involved in the rob-slay of a lending firm manager in La Carlota, who was shot dead in Bacolod City, last year.

Reports that Chicoba is also involved in the series of hold-up incidents in Isabela town are also being verified.

The three suspects, as well as the firearms and suspected marijuana leaves, were turned over to the Bago City Police Station for further investigation, pending the filing of charges against them for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, Tubongbanua said.

The tricycle driver, meanwhile, was released.*GPB

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PNP: Gardener nabbed
for homicide raps 20 years ago

A gardener, who has been wanted for homicide in the province of Antique for 20 years now, was apprehended in Brgy. Sum-ag, Bacolod City, at about 8 p.m. Thursday.

Police identified the suspect as Jesus Villanueva, 42, of Purok Riverside. He was arrested by policemen of Station 9 and of Belisan town, Antique, after he alighted from a passenger jeep on his way home at Araneta Street.

Senior Police Officer 1 Ariel Sevilla, case investigator, said Villanueva was nabbed on the strength of an arrest warrant for homicide, issued by San Remegio, Antique Municipal Circuit Trial Court Judge Monina Misajon, who set his bail at P20,000.

The suspect is the fifth most wanted man in Belisan, police records showed.

Villanueva recalled that he and his companions were sitting beside the road in Belisan while attending a wake, when a commotion took place and a man, whom he did not identify, was stabbed dead.

Several days after the incident, he claimed that he and his companions were tagged as suspects in the killing.

Sevilla told the DAILY STAR that the complainants in the case against Villanueva have reportedly desisted from pursuing the case. The problem, however, was that Villanueva and his companions failed to attend the court hearings, and that resulted in the issuance of the warrants.

Villanueva is detained at the lock-up cell of Police Station 9.*APN

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