Police kill man linked to Consolacion shootout

A man whom police suspected to be a member of gun-for-hire and drug trafficking groups was shot and killed by police in barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City.

The police operation last Saturday night was an offshoot of Thursday’s simultaneous raids in barangay Pulpogan, Consolacion town where four  persons were killed in a shootout.

In the recent operation in sitio Aroma, police shot Gerondio Lanticse alias Gerry Danglag in the shoulder after he allegedly tried to draw a gun.

Lanticse  died while being treated at the Mandaue District Hospital.

Police said Lanticse and Francisco Ariva escaped in the Consolacion raids.

Operatives of the Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB), Special Weapon and Tactics-Mandaue City rushed to sitio Aroma after receiving a tip that Lanticse was spotted there.

SPO1 Reynaldo Solante, leader of the arresting team from PIB, said they saw Lanticse standing along a road when they arrived in the area at 9:20 p.m.

Solante said when they disembarked from the car, Lanticse recognized him and immediately drew his gun from his waist.

Solante shot Lanticse before he could fire a shot.

“Wala na tay mahimo kundi pusilon siya kaysa kami pay mapusilan (We had no other recourse but to shoot before he could shot us),” said Solante in a phone interview.

Police recovered from Lanticse’s possession a .45 caliber pistol with seven bullets, a cellphone, and two medium packs of suspected shabu.

Solante said Lanticse was the one who first opened fire which resulted in a shootout when they were out to serve the warrant at the house of Ariva in Pulpogan.

Ariva was the subject of the raids, police said.

Killed in the shoout were Vicente Bayon Judaya, Ian Siacol, Rene Boy Tarriao, and Jerson Resma.

Two men were also arrested.

High-powered firearms, hand grenades and several packs of suspected shabu were seized in the operation.

Lanticse was one of the four persons arrested last November 2012 after several drug paraphernalia and unlicensed firearms were recovered from them inside a lodging house in Alegria town, Solante said.

The group was considered to be one of the big-time criminal groups being hunted by the police, said Senior Supt. Patrocinio Comendador, chief of the Cebu Provincial Police Office.

Chief Supt. Marcelo Garbo, chief of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), said the police operatives involved in the Consolacion raids will be commended.

“Medals will be given individually to the operatives,”said Garbo.

Among those to be commended are operatives of the Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group (RAIDSOTG 7), Regional Intelligence Division (RID-7) and Cebu Provincial Police Office-Provincial Intelligence Branch (CPPO-PIB).

Garbo said he is still waiting for a detailed incident report to be submitted to Senior Supt. Orlando Ualat, Deputy Regional Director for Operations./WITH REPORTER JUCELL marie CUYOS