The suspected leader of a car theft group composed of former convicts was killed in a shootout with policemen in Muntinlupa City Tuesday morning.
Three of Arnel Canque’s cohorts also died when they refused to yield and instead shot it out with lawmen who had pretended to be interested car buyers.
Killed along with Canque were Charles Joy Flores and Jonathan Moramion Catapal, Muntinlupa police chief Senior Superintendent Conrad Capa told the Inquirer. The fourth suspected car thief has yet to be identified.
According to Southern Police District director Chief Supt. Benito Estipona, Canque always wore a police shirt to pass himself off as a law enforcer every time he and his gang operated in Quezon City or Manila.
At around 1 a.m. Tuesday, Canque and his cohorts were set to meet with interested car buyers.
What the group did not know was that it was the target of an entrapment operation organized by members of the National Capital Region Police Office, Muntinlupa police, Highway Patrol Group and Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
At the meeting place agreed upon by the gang and the “buyers” at a gas station near the Alabang Town Center, Canque and his cohorts showed off a red Toyota Vios with license plate ZCN 566, which they wanted to sell for P150,000.
When they finally realized that they were dealing with policemen, the four gang members drove off in the vehicle, leading to a chase.
They were later cornered on Emerald Street in Barangay (village) Tunasan after they lost control of the car and hit a concrete fence. Instead of surrendering, however, they drew their firearms and fired upon their pursuers, Estipona said.
Recovered from the four men were the Vios, which later turned out to have been stolen from its owner, Mary Joy Tabora, on España Boulevard, Manila, on Saturday night.
Tabora identified the car as hers when she went to the Muntinlupa police accompanied by the head of the Manila Police District anticar theft unit, Chief Inspector Rizalino Pecayo.
She told the police that she decided to check if the four men killed in the shoot-out were the same ones who took her car after she heard reports about the incident.
Aside from the stolen car, the police also recovered two .45-cal. pistols, two .38-cal. revolvers, bullet shells and blue police shirts. With Maricar Brizuela