Manila ‘crime gang leader’ dead in Cavite shootout

SAN PEDRO CITY –– A man tagged as a leader of a criminal group in Metro Manila was killed in a shootout with the police in Silang town in Cavite province.

A team composed of policemen from Cavite and the regional office the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group served an arrest warrant against Frankie Mark Serrano around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in his Barangay Santol hideout, Cavite police director Sr. Supt. William Segun said in a phone interview on Thursday.

Segun said the suspect resisted arrest and was first to shoot at them, forcing the authorities to return fire.

The warrant issued on June 8 by Judge Hilda Mendoza of the Imus Municipal Trial Court in Cities was for grave threat concerning the May 20 incident on Nagtahan bridge in Manila.

In that incident, Serrano supposedly drove a green car that rammed at least 10 vehicles parked on the roadside in Manila.

To accost the driver, the residents threw rocks at the car that eventually forced Serrano to stop and abandon his vehicle.

Serrano and a still unidentified male companion escaped on foot.

A witness recorded the incident in a video that went viral on the internet in May.

Segun said it turned out that Serrano was a leader of a group involved in abduction, theft, and robbery.

Serrano’s group operated in Metro Manila until police learned he went into hiding in Cavite. /lzb