NEWSBRIEFS

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY

Trader, son abducted

Armed men in police uniform abducted a businessman and his son inside the family-owned agricultural product store in Barangay Gusa on Monday.

Chief Insp. Danildo Tumanda, chief of the city’s Public Safety Office, said the abductors disarmed the store’s security guard and went inside to look for its owner.

They took the victims and fled in a Red Isuzu Adventure van, Tumanda said.

Mayor Vicente Emano ordered the city police to set up checkpoints in all exit points to Bukidnon and Iligan City. Bobby Lagsa, Inquirer Mindanao

ZAMBALES

Old bomb retrieved

POLICE and bomb experts retrieved a vintage bomb from the waters off Barangay (village) Baloganon in the coastal town of Masinloc on Saturday.

The 2.13-meter, 24-inch diameter bomb, said to be of World War II vintage, was discovered by local fishermen in 2009, according to Senior Supt. Francisco Santiago Jr., the police provincial director. It was lying 6.09 meters from the surface of the water in Sitio Asinan, he said.

Inspector Maita Gabrentina, spokesperson of the retrieval team, said the bomb could destroy buildings and houses within a 500-m radius. Cesar Villa, Inquirer Central Luzon

ANGELES CITY

US tourist faces raps

AN AMERICAN tourist and his Filipino driver were charged with two counts of murder for their alleged involvement in the killing of a former British policeman and his Filipino partner inside their house in Barangay (village) Amsic on

September 2.

The city police filed the complaint against Timothy Kaufman and Jesus Santos at the city prosecutor’s office on Friday, according to Inspector Dickson Tolentino.

The two were identified by security guards of Josefaville 2 Subdivision through photographs obtained by the police from Facebook as the occupants of a white Toyota Innova that entered the subdivision and parked in front of the house of David Balmer, 54, and Elma de Guia, 26.

Footage from a closed circuit television camera showed that the vehicle almost bumped the subdivision gate as it hastily left the area.

Kaufman and Santos left the rented Innova in front of a hotel in the city. Police say business rivalry could be a motive for the killing. Jun Malig, Inquirer Central Luzon

TUGUEGARAO CITY

Cop execs probed

The top police official in Cagayan Valley has put three police chiefs and their men under investigation for their failure to stop fleeing car thieves on September 11.

Chief Supt. Francisco Villaroman, regional police director, said the chiefs of police and personnel of Tuguegarao City and Iguig and Amulung towns would be relieved if found to be negligent in putting up checkpoints following a robbery and car theft that victimized Jovito Ilagan, an auditor at the regional office of the Commission on Audit.

Four men robbed Ilagan and took his Isuzu Sportivo in RJ Subdivision in the city. Despite an alert issued to police stations along the escape route, the suspects were only stopped in Alcala town, some 40 kilometers away, after they were killed in a shootout with policemen.

Four Alcala policemen were wounded in the gunfight in Barangay Tupan.

Police identified the slain suspects as Edmundo Lutero of Imus, Cavite; Joven Amora of Parañaque City; and Alfredo Tanguilan and Philip Gacutan, both of Makati City. Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon

BACOLOD CITY

2 bodies found

The body of an unidentified woman was found in a sack floating off the shoreline of the city reclamation area, while a call center employee was found dead in a pension house in the city on Sunday.

Fishermen Ajias Trinidad and Giovanie Gerpo told police that they were fishing about 30 meters from the shoreline of the reclamation area at about 7:30 a.m. when they found the sack floating.

Call center employee Ian Sherwin Sandoval, 34, was found naked and dead under the bed in his rented room at Ester Pension house on Araneta Street.

Police said Sandoval’s body was found by pension house employee Carl Conrad Tomaro, 22, of Talisay City, at 12:25 a.m. Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas

BIÑAN CITY

A case of double-cross?

Three men suspected of peddling illegal drugs were murdered inside their rented apartment in Barangay (village) Canlalay on Saturday.

According to city police chief, Supt. Leo Luna, the bodies of Michael alias “Daga” de Ramos, 39, and Unyo Carillo, alias “Buwaya,” were found at around 7:30 a.m. on Saturday.  The third victim remained unidentified.

Police said the killings could be a case of a double-cross between drug dealers as the names of De Ramos and Carillo were on the police watch list of drug personalities. Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon