3 robbers killed in ‘taxi trap’ laid by cops

Three robbers were killed in a shootout on Wednesday night in Quezon City after they unknowingly walked into a trap laid for them by the police with the help of a fourth cohort.

Delfin Benitez, Mike Dicatanungan and Daniel Caranto thought they were just meeting with Orlando Manuel, the driver of the Lady Christensen taxi they had used the night before in a robbery.

What they did not know was that Manuel had been arrested and policemen were lying in wait for them inside the former’s cab.

In a press conference on Thursday, Chief Supt. Mario de la Vega, Quezon City Police District director, said the three men, along with Manuel, robbed the Monterey meat shop on Mindanao Avenue on Tuesday night.

Using Manuel’s cab (TXU 788) as a getaway vehicle, the group made off with an undetermined amount of cash and the valuables of the shop’s employees.

Case investigator PO2 Julius Balbuena said that probers, however, were able to trace the cab to Camilo Obana who pointed to Manuel as the driver.

In an operation, members of the Talipapa police station arrested Manuel at his house in Barangay (village) Apolonio Samson. They recovered from him a hand grenade as well as the group’s getaway vehicle.

The police later set up an entrapment operation with Manuel’s help. He sent a text message to his three cohorts in which he asked them to meet him on Wednesday night at Parkway Village in Barangay Apolonio Samson.

When the three men showed up at the meeting place, they spotted Manuel in his taxi cab.

They were walking toward him when policemen who had hidden themselves inside the vehicle got out and introduced themselves as law enforcers.

The three, however, drew their guns and fired at them, leading to a shootout.

De la Vega said the three robbers died on the spot. A search of their bodies yielded two .38-cal. revolvers, ammunition and a knife, according to case investigator PO2 Anthony Tejerero.

One of them, Dicatanungan, was arrested last year for robbing a restaurant although he was eventually released on bail.

Manuel, on the other hand, will undergo inquest proceedings for robbery and illegal possession of firearms, Tejerero said.