By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
The leader of a local robbery group operating in Bacolod City and nearby locales was killed yesterday after attempting to rob an off-duty police officer at the corner of CL Montelibano-Baloyo Streets in the city’s Barangay Villamonte.
Police identified the fatality as Johnnie Villarete, leader of the Villarete robbery hold-up group. Villarete had six outstanding arrest warrants on charges of drug possession and robbery, and posted bail five times for the said charges. The latest was paid last month.
Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) director, Police Senior Superintendent Francisco Ebreo, said, around 12:30 a.m., Police Officer 2 (PO2) Eric Aloquina, a member of the Philippine National Police Maritime Group-Bacolod station, was fetching a friend, whom police requested not to identify, aboard a motorcycle.
As they were about to leave, they were blocked by a dark blue Mitsubishi Adventure. Villarete, along with two other suspects, identified as Rustan Pecuerdal and Niño Albonales, exited the vehicle and tried to rob Aloquina’s motorcycle.
Aloquina, however, fought back and pulled out his 9mm Glock service pistol and shot Villarete, who was armed with an airsoft M16 assault rifle.
Villarete sustained a fatal shot to the abdomen, while Pecuerdal tried to escape with the cop’s motorcycle, but, amid the commotion, crashed into a parked vehicle not far from the initial encounter.
Albonales, meanwhile, ran away after seeing Villarete shot.
Ebreo said police later arrested Pecuerdal at a hospital in Bacolod City, as he was receiving treatment for the injuries sustained in the crash. Albonales was captured in his residence in Barangay Bata during a follow-up operation by Police Station 4 personnel.
The BCPO director also said investigators are presently running checks on Villarete’s Mitsubishi Adventure as it was reported to have matched the vehicle used in the killing of a Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency asset in Barangay 8 last month.
He also believes the vehicle may have been carnapped and are presently reviewing its plates with officials from the Land Transportation Office.
Following the incident, Ebreo projected the number of robbery and carnapping incidents will decline, adding, Villarete’s death marks the end of the Villarete crime group.
Although other crime groups, such as the Aki Cuadra robbery group, could take over, he assured the public they are also actively pursuing the criminal group./DGB, WDJ