CEBU CITY, Philippines?The bodies of three of four slain members of the Alvin Flores robbery gang, including that of Flores, had been cremated on the request of relatives who came here to claim the remains.

Aside from Flores, the bodies of Mark Salamanca and Roger Sanchez, also members of the gang, were cremated.

The cremation was done in secret because the families of the slain men requested it, said lawyer Cayetano Santos, counsel of the families of the gang members.

Santos said the relatives of the dead men wanted to bring home only the men?s ashes.

Mario Esparcia, marketing head of Cosmopolitan Funeral Parlor, said Santos was the one who picked up the ashes of the men.

Flores, Salamanca, Sanchez and Richie Jihapon were killed in what the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said was a gunfight on Oct. 29 in an apartment in Barangay Estaca, Compostela town in northern Cebu.

A fifth gang member, identified as Rene Batiancila, was the only one who survived the gunfight and is now in the custody of the NBI.

The body of Jihapon was first claimed by his relatives. He is a native of Sta. Fe town on Bantayan Island in the northern tip of Cebu.

Esparcia said Santos was able to present cremation permits from the Cebu City Health Office. He said the cremation had also been coordinated by Santos with the NBI in Cebu.

Santos earlier said he was hired by the men?s families not to pursue charges against policemen who killed the gang members but just to identify their bodies and give the dead a decent burial.