Town deputy cop chief hit by sniper fire during hunt for crime boss

LEGAZPI CITY—The deputy police chief of the town of Libon in Albay was killed on Tuesday by what investigators said could be a sniper belonging to a syndicate that was behind a string of high-profile crimes in the province.

Senior Insp. Joerem Kallos, 40, was hit by a lone bullet in the back around 5:30 a.m. while he was with a group of policemen manning a checkpoint in Sitio Pinagbadilan in Barangay Buga, Libon, said Senior Supt. Marlo Meneses, the head of the Philipine National Police in Albay.

Kallos and his men were in the area to provide security to a police team that was to serve a warrant of arrest to Gilbert Concepcion, leader of the notorious Concepcion gang operating in Albay.

Concepcion and his men were believed to be hiding in Barangay Molosbolos, which adjoins Barangay Buga, both remote villages of Libon, a town some 60 kilometers from this city.

The Concepcion gang was tagged the group that was hired to assassinate Nelson Morales, former city engineer of Makati.

Morales was gunned down in Malinao, Albay, on Sept. 7, 2012.

Morales, then chair of the United Nationalist Alliance in Albay who had declared his intention to run for mayor of Malinao in 2013, was shot dead by hired guns at a Catholic church ground after attending a wedding ceremony with his sister, then Mayor Alice Morales.

Concepcion and his brother, Ramson, also at large, are among those facing murder charges for the Morales killing.

Meneses said members of the Libon police, Albay Police Public Safety Command and the Regional Public Safety Battalion, led by Chief Insp. Rodel Pescuela, were armed with a warrant of arrest and had zeroed in on Concepcion’s hideout when Kallos was shot by a sniper.

Meneses said Kallos was rushed to Josefina Belmonte Memorial District Hospital in Ligao City where he was declared dead on arrival.

After the killing, policemen swooped in on Concepcion’s lair and clashed with at least 20 members of the gang.

But the gang members, after a 15-minute exchange of fire, managed to flee toward a mountainous area of the village. Manhunt operations were ongoing until past noon, Meneses said.

Meneses said Concepcion, a former soldier, was one of the most wanted persons in the province.

He is facing a string of criminal charges ranging from robbery to murder, Meneses said.