Rob suspect’s photo helped cops set trap

“GETAWAY” SHOT The Parañaque police said they used this photo of Julakbil Abbo, purportedly taken by one of his robbery victims before he made off with a stolen motorbike, in verifying his identity when they entrapped him Monday.

To track him down, the police said they used a photo taken by his fifth victim.

A man tagged in seven armed robbery cases and said to be half of a bike-riding criminal tandem was shot dead by the Parañaque City police on Monday.

Police said they laid a trap for Julakbil H. Abbo, 25, of Maharlika Village, Taguig City, and his cohort at a gas station on Sun Valley Drive, where members of an anticar theft team led by SPO3 Mario Cris Gellanga waited for the duo. Abbo’s unidentified partner, however, escaped and remained at large.

It was the culmination of weeks of intelligence gathering, particularly on the duo’s usual route, Gellanga said.

“They played exactly into the scenario we had planned for them,” said another team member, PO3 Ameloden Ampuan, who noted that Abbo was killed in the same shirt with a “tribal logo” and a pair of “Havaianas slippers” that he wore in previous robberies. “It was his usual getup.”

Records showed that the two suspects arrived on a Honda Wave motorbike at the gas station to refuel around 4 p.m. Monday, when they were spotted by Gellanga and SPO1 Jaime Mago. Ampuan was then posted on a street a block away.

Mago recognized Abbo based on a photo taken by one of the latter’s past victims. Taken using a cell phone camera, the photo, which had since gone viral, showed Abbo purportedly in the act of taking the victim’s motorbike on Jan. 4.

Abbo drew his gun and fired at Mago as the officer approached, triggering a “shootout” where the suspect was hit in the head twice. Police said they recovered a .45-cal. pistol and two magazines from the slain suspect. His partner, who drove the bike, managed to escape.

Aside from being linked to six robberies in Parañaque where the tandem allegedly targeted other motorbike riders, Abbo was identified by the Makati City police as the one who took a Suzuki Raider from its owner on Jan. 8 along Osmeña Highway in Barangay (village) Palanan.

Abbo and his partner allegedly killed their first victim, Dexter J. Barambagan, when the latter refused to let go of his Honda XRM on Dec. 7, 2012.