Suspect killed in Laguna encounter not an Azkal

One of the six suspected members of a gun-for-hire group slain in a shootout with police in Calamba City last week had used the identity of a member of the Philippine football team Azkals.

Superintendent Ceasar Tannagan, police chief of Calamba City, said they had their earlier report corrected to clear the name of Azkals player David Mark Sanding Basa, 23.

The dead man’s real identity, Tannagan said, was Ian Miko Banog Magsino, 21, from San Juan, Batangas.

Basa’s older brother, Xavier, called the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Wednesday after news on the shootout came out.  They also reported the mix-up to the National Bureau of Investigation in Manila on Friday to have Basa’s records cleared.

“Our relatives abroad were the ones who learned about it first. They were asking about my brother or if he got involved (into some kind of an illegal activity). My brother is very much alive,” Xavier said.

Six armed men, allegedly members of a robbery and gun-for-hire syndicate, were killed in a gunfight with policemen on Nov. 12 in Barangay Lecheria in Calamba.

The police, later that afternoon, released the names of the suspects, among them a David Mark Sanding Basa from Malate, Manila.

“We were shocked. It could not be a simple coincidence because even the middle name and the address were the same,” Xavier said.

Tannagan said the man, who turned out to be Magsino, was initially identified as Basa because of the driver’s license recovered from the scene. The picture on the license was Magsino’s, “so he must have replaced it,” Tannagan said.

Police only found out that Magsino had been using a fictitious name when his relatives identified and claimed his body. “We found about it through the death certificate,” added Tannagan.

Basa, in a phone interview on Saturday, said he dropped and lost his wallet that contained his driver’s license in Makati in January. Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon