Cebu police say arrests of suspects show impunity not tolerated

CEBU CITY — Police here presented the case of two arrested young guns-for-hire, who had allegedly been paid P45,000 to kill a drug suspect, as proof that law enforcers were not letting impunity rule in the city, where 49 murders had been committed since February and mostly remained unsolved.

Alex Montes, 18, and his 17-year-old accomplice confessed to police they had been paid by a certain “Archie” P45,000 to kill Niño Tanajura in the village of San Nicolas in the city on March 24.

Tanajura became the target of a syndicate supposedly for failing to remit proceeds from drug sales.

The young assassins were supposed to do another hit job but were arrested by police.

Since Feb. 17, at least 49 persons had been killed in separate attacks in Metro Cebu.

Police had arrested suspects in three of the cases, including the one involving Montes and his 17-year-old accomplice.

Vigilante

One of them was Roland Arita, who was arrested in the village of Pulangbato on March 26.

Arita’s arrest came three days after he allegedly shot dead a certain Eric Pedrosa Manzo, who was facing charges of drug trafficking and illegal possession of firearms.

Arita admitted killing Manzo and showed no remorse.

“I wanted to be sorry for it but he was an evil person,” said Arita, who described Manzo as a robber.

The confessed killer, in an interview, said Manzo was his second victim.

On Feb. 17, Arita said he also gunned down a certain Florencio Leyson, who was allegedly behind the killing of Arita’s uncle.

“I will own up everything,” Arita said.

Senior Supt. Joel Doria, director of the Cebu City police force, said the arrest of Arita and the two young guns-for-hire—Montes and the 17-year-old—proved that the police were doing their best to solve the murder cases here.