Businessman Butch Cosme never thought that he, his mother and younger brother would be targeted by a group of assassins until a man showed up at their house and told them that he had been hired to kill them.
“I did not believe him at first and thought that he was crazy until he showed me a photo of myself, my other brother and mother. He also showed me a grenade he took out from his pocket,” Cosme told the Inquirer during an interview at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) compound on Friday.
Based on the information provided by the man, Cosme went to the NBI for help. It turned out that “Tata,” as the informant called himself, was a member of a five-man gun-for-hire group led by an active Army soldier, T/Sgt. Robert Yadao, who is now in the custody of the Army provost marshal.
Three other members of the group were arrested in a follow-up operation conducted last week by members of the NBI’s Death Investigation Division headed by head agent Ferdinand Lavin.
Seized from Yadao’s house in Payatas, Quezon City, in a separate raid was a “modified .45-cal. pistol” and 100 rounds of ammunition for the gun, which looked like a high-powered firearm.
According to the NBI, the group operated in Metro Manila and Luzon. It added that it was verifying reports that the gang was behind the killing of several prominent people.
Cosme said he had goose bumps when Tata listed the places he had been to, the exact time he was there and when the “hit” was supposed to take place.
When asked if he knew who wanted him and his family dead, the businessman declined to answer although he said that he had a suspect in mind.
Asked for the motive, Cosme said it probably had something to do with “the money left by my brother.”
His brother was attacked and killed inside his construction office in Manila a few years ago. The incident prompted Cosme to join the anticrime watch group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption.
Tata told the Inquirer that he decided to approach his target after he was double-crossed by members of the group.
“There was a disagreement over money and I have also become a target so I made up my mind to go to Mr. Cosme. It turns out the group has hired someone else to kill him and should something happen to him, I would be tagged as the culprit because I had been spotted monitoring his movements,” he said.
According to him, he had been hired to kill Cosme and his family for P150,000 under a contract that was negotiated by Yadao.
“The payment will be divided among us after expenses,” he explained.
NBI senior agent Zaldy Rivera told the Inquirer that the information provided by Tata led to the arrest of the three other gang members on Tuesday during a raid on their safe house on Kapalaran Street, Commonwealth Avenue, in Quezon City.
They were identified as Gerry Tactacon, 41, a driver; Raquel Layusa, 36, a construction worker; and Danilo Galvan, 24, a tricycle driver.
In that raid, several firearms hidden in walls were recovered by the NBI.
The group’s supposed leader, Yadao, was able to elude NBI agents when they raided his house in Payatas, Quezon City, but the Army later took him into custody.