Deadly gang tentacles reach man trying to start new life

CEBU CITY—A former crime gang member who had assumed a false identity, his common-law wife and their 3-year-old son were killed inside their home in a village in Lapu-Lapu City, police said on Thursday.

Police believe the killing was triggered by a rift within the Kuratong Baleleng, a criminal syndicate based in Ozamiz City, after one of the victims, Fernando Canillo Sr., turned out to be a former member of the crime group.

Senior Supt. Anthony Obenza, Lapu-Lapu City police director, said Canillo’s real name was Bruno Villanueva, a native of Pampanga who had been involved in robberies.

He said police have the identity of one of the three armed men who shot and killed Villanueva, 58; his live-in partner Emma Beranges, 36; and son Fernando II inside their home in Babag about 6 a.m. on Thursday.

The suspect, he added, was a Kuratong Baleleng member who had been looking for Villanueva after Villanueva left the group.

Obenza described Villanueva as a senior member of Kuratong Baleleng who had been entrusted with the group’s finances. Villanueva, Obenza said, had a run in with other members of the group over loot division.

Villanueva had been moving his family from one place to another in an apparent bid to avoid other Kuratong Baleleng members who are after him.

The family moved to Barangay Babag on Jan. 28 into a newly constructed house.

Some of his neighbors were baffled where the couple were getting their income since both Villanueva and Beranges owned several vehicles and would give bags of rice to pedicab drivers and neighbors when they didn’t have any clear source of income.