Fugitive ex-cop recaptured after 28 years

A dismissed police officer wanted for killing a military officer was finally captured in Rizal province after almost three decades in hiding.

Fugitive Joel Consuelo Villanueva, who held a rank of Senior Police Officer 1 (now master sergeant), was arrested at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday at his daughter’s house in a subdivision in Cainta, Rizal.

Villanueva was among the country’s most wanted persons and carried a P275,000 bounty. He was convicted and jailed in 1991, but managed to escape from the Lucena City Jail in 1995.

He was recaptured the following year, but once again escaped while undergoing a medical examination. Authorities said Villanueva would remain in police custody while awaiting a court order on where he should be detained. —DEXTER CABALZA