PNP surprised to find gunrunning suspect was a cop

From left: QCPD director Chief Supt. Edgardo Tinio, Task Force Tugis head Senior Supt. Ronald Lee and QCPD-CIDU head Chief Insp. Rodelio Marcelo present to reporters the firearms seized from a gunrunning suspect who turned out to be a policeman. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Operatives of the Philippine National Police’s Task Force Tugis who conducted an entrapment operation against a gunrunning suspect on Monday afternoon had no idea that their target was also a policeman.

SPO1 Wilberto Blanco—assigned at the Anonas police station of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD)—was killed when he shot it out with members of the police group tasked to go after high-profile wanted personalities.

Blanco was one of three suspects inside a black Isuzu MUX (ASA-7504) who were being targeted by the PNP task force in an entrapment operation at the corner of Quezon Avenue and Roces Avenue in Barangay (village) Paligsahan, Quezon City.

Earlier, the police received information about an illegal trader of high-powered firearms in Quezon City, Task Force Tugis head Senior Supt. Ronald Lee said in a press conference on Tuesday. The seller was identified only as “Blanco.”

On Monday morning, a Task Force Tugis member, in the guise of being a buyer, set up a deal with Blanco via SMS, ordering an Intratec machine pistol for P30,000.

Blanco first told the “buyer” to meet him at the Quezon Memorial Circle at 11 a.m., then changed the venue to Philcoa. Once again, he moved the meeting place to West Avenue until he finally settled on a convenience store at the corner of Quezon Avenue and Roces Avenue.

Around 4 p.m., Blanco told the buyer via SMS that he was in the area in a black Isuzu, Lee said. But when the undercover policeman knocked on the parked van, it tried to speed away, hitting two bystanders and smashing two other cars, one of which hit another vehicle.

Blanco then started shooting at the pursuing police team, prompting them to fire back, said QCPD Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit head Chief Insp. Rodelio Marcelo.

Blanco suffered a gunshot wound to the head while his companions inside the van, driver Harlie Pineda Linda, 34, and his sister Diane, 38, were wounded.

All three suspects and the two injured bystanders were brought to the nearby Capitol Medical Center on Quezon Avenue. Blanco died around 6:30 p.m.

Recovered from the suspect’s vehicle was the loaded Intratec pistol which turned out to have an expired license; his service firearm, a loaded 9mm Pietro Beretta pistol; a loaded 9mm Glock handgun; and a .45-cal. Taurus pistol. Police also recovered a plastic bag containing a kilo of suspected methamphethamine hydrochloride, or “shabu,” and eight cell phones.

Lee said that when they embarked on the operation, they had no idea they were going to deal with a policeman. QCPD director Chief Supt. Edgardo Tinio, in the same press conference, added that Blanco “had pending cases for dismissable offenses at the regional level.”

Marcelo said these offenses included complaints of planting evidence, kidnapping and illegal arrest.

In 2012, Blanco, then with a rank of Police Officer 3 and assigned at the Galas police station, was ordered dismissed by National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Leonardo Espina after he and his brother, PO2 William Blanco, were accused by a barangay chair in Manila of arresting him on trumped-up drug charges. The barangay chair also claimed that the Blancos took his winnings in a cockfighting match totaling P170,000.

The relieved police officers were assigned to Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City to face an investigation. But based on the suspect’s personnel data sheet from the QCPD, he was reassigned to the QCPD in February 2013, promoted to SPO1 by September and by November that same year, was back at the Galas station.

He was then reassigned in July to the Anonas station from the Batasan police station. “We are looking into his line-of-duty status. But definitely, [his family] will no longer receive benefits because he was doing an illegal activity,” Tinio said.

He could not answer why Blanco was reinstated in 2013, saying the status of his administrative case was under the jurisdiction of the NCRPO.