Slain car dealer’s pa wants to face son’s suspected killer

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Philippines—The father of slain car dealer Venson Evangelista said he would like to face his son’s alleged gunman, Rolando Talban, who was arrested last week in Cavite.

“I will face him and show him pictures of my son’s gruesome death. Maybe that will make him feel guilty,” said Arsenio Evangelista in a phone interview Sunday.

Talban, the supposed hitman of the notorious Dominguez carjacking group, was arrested Wednesday morning in Barangay (village) Burol 1 in Dasmariñas City. It was also in Dasmariñas where the bodies of Alfred Mendiola, the slain star witness against the car theft gang, and of two others, were found last May.

The Dasmariñas police were responding to a reported shooting in Barangay Burol 1 but when they arrived, they found Talban beaten up and held by an angry mob, according to a city police report obtained by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The report said bystanders ganged up on Talban after he attempted to hijack a silver Toyota Innova and wounded one of its passengers. Victims Robert Ramos and Leodegario Dimayuga Jr., who was shot in the thigh, were found inside the stolen vehicle.

“The police at first didn’t know it was (Talban), that was why he was initially arrested for frustrated murder (of Dimayuga),” said a police source. The source requested anonymity and declined to discuss details on how the Innova was stolen for not having been authorized to speak on the ongoing investigation.

Talban, wanted for the murder of Venson and another car dealer, Emerson Lozano, introduced himself to the arresting officers as Wilson Mendoza from Nasugbu, Batangas. But the police were able to verify the suspect’s real identity based on a tattoo on his left shoulder and a bullet mark in his body, the source said.

The police Highway Patrol Group had put up a P600,000 bounty for the arrest of Talban, the primary suspect in the murder of Venson and Lozano, whose charred bodies were recovered in Cabanatuan and Pampanga in January 2011.

Talban was also wanted for the murder of Teresita Teaño in Kamuning, Quezon City, in 2011.

Top police officials in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) earlier refused to comment on Talban’s arrest as follow-up operations continued.

Arsenio Evangelista said Talban, who would be presented to reporters at the regional police headquarters here on Monday, had four arrest warrants, including the one for his son’s murder.