Samar’s wanted gang leader killed in Tarlac

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — The leader of the notorious Oquendo Gang, of ‘hired guns,’ based in Calbayog City in Samar was killed in an armed encounter yesterday afternoon at the Fairlane Subdivision in Barangay San Vicente, Tarlac City.

Senior Superintendent Nicholas Torre, director of the Samar Police Provincial Office (SPPO) told the media in Eastern Visayas that gang leader Genesis Oquendo, “alias Etin Oquendo,” was slain by a joint operation in Tarlac City by the SPPO and Tarlac City Police operatives.

Oquendo was Samar province’s number one most wanted person, carrying a reward of P50,000, for two counts of murder and two frustrated murder cases, now pending at the Regional Trial Courts in Eastern Visayas.

The joint teams of police tried to serve the warrants of arrest against Oquendo, but the latter decided to fight it out by firing his gun on the authorities, resulting in his death.

His two companions, Henry Palmonares, 48, and Victor Vasquez, 40, both from Guinubatan in Albay, were arrested after the gunfight. Three .45-caliber pistols were seized from the suspects.

Meanwhile, Calbayog City Mayor Ronald Aquino said the killings in his city has been alarming, with at least four people shot dead within a week this month alone.

One of them was Joe Patrick, a city government employee, who was shot dead yesterday morning when four men waylaid him with M-16 armalite rifles.

Last November 16, Barangay San Jose Chairman Roberto Gacelos, while riding a motorcycle-for-hire, was killed when armed men fired at him. His driver was also dead, but his companion, a councilman, survived.

On November 17, Barangay Malajog Chairperson Maria Jessebel Ygbuhay was killed in a shooting incident, while her one year old son was hit by a stray bullet and was rushed to the hospital. (FREEMAN)