CEBU CITY, Philippines—Police are now investigating the link between the Kuratong Baleleng robbery group and the killing of a couple and their three-year-old son by at least three unidentified armed men inside their home in Barangay (village) Babag II, Lapu-Lapu City on Thursday morning.
The police believed the killing was triggered by a rift within the Kuratong Baleleng after one of the victims – Fernando Canillo Sr. – turned out to be a senior member of the robbery group.
Senior Supt. Anthony Obenza, Lapu-Lapu City police director, said Canillo’s real name was Bruno Villanueva, a native of Pampanga who had been involved in robberies including the bank heist in Dasmariñas, Cavite.
He said they had the identity of one of the three armed men who shot and killed Villanueva, 58; his live-in partner Emma Beranges, 36; and son Fernando II inside their home in Babag about 6 a.m. on Thursday.
The suspect, he added, was one of the Kuratong Baleleng members who had been looking for Villanueva after the latter left the group.
Obenza described Villanueva as a senior member of Kuratong Baleleng who had been entrusted with the group’s finances. But he had a run in with other members of the group over how he divided the loot.
Villanueva had been moving his family from one place to another in an apparent bid to avoid the other Kuratong Baleleng members who had been tailing him.
The family moved to Sitio Judasbelt, Barangay Babag on Jan. 28 after the construction of the two-story house was completed.
Some of his neighbors were baffled by the couple’s source of wealth. Police learned that both Villanueva and Beranges owned several vehicles and would give bags of rice to the trisikad drivers and their neighbors when they didn’t have any clear source of income.
Obenza described the house as a fortress. He said one had to pass through three steel gates before getting to the house.
“His only weakness was that he got out of his house,” said Obenza.
Villanueva, Emma and his two children aged 4 and 6, went to the Babag public market early morning Thursday. (Earlier reports said the couple was with their three-year-old son. The police later clarified that the boy stayed inside the house while his two siblings were with their parents).
As they were heading home about 6 a.m., an unidentified man approached Villanueva and put his arm on the victim’s shoulder. The two walked toward Villanueva’s house while Emma and the two children followed them.
Two other men followed Villanueva inside the house. Then bursts of gunfire were heard from the house.
Three men were seen leaving the house and boarding a silver Toyota Corolla – the same vehicle noticed by neighbors parked near the victims’ house about 4 a.m. Thursday.
Emma was hit in the face and lower left shoulder while Villanueva suffered bullet wounds in the left chest, face, armpit and shoulder.
The boy had a gunshot wound in the right eye and the bullet exited from his temple.
His two siblings – a six-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy – were spared because they were able to hide somewhere on the second floor of the house. The two are now in the custody of the Lapu-Lapu City police women’s desk.’
Emma’s younger brother, Ricric Beronguis, 17, was hit in the neck and was in critical condition in undisclosed hospital in Cebu City.
The police later found an open vault on a table in the living room, a few feet away from where the bodies were found.
Obenza said the vault was empty except for some envelopes, which they initially thought as containing land titles.
The police recovered 22 empty shells of a .45-caliber pistol and four deformed slugs from the crime scene.