Manila: A road rage murder suspect in an incident in Manila on Monday was arrested by the military and the police in a far-flung village in central Philippines on Friday, sources said.
Vhon Martin Tanto who shot to death Mark Vincent Garalde, a bicycle rider, in a road altercation on Casal Street last Monday night was arrested by a joint operation of the Army’s Intelligence and Security Group, regional military division, and local policemen in Poblacion village East, Milagros town, Masbate province, 500 kilometres south of Manila, before noon on Friday, said Army chief Lt-General Eduardo Año.
Before his arrest, former president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada increased the bounty for Tanto’s head from P100,000 to P200,000 (Dh8,333.40 to Dh16,666.80), said Año, adding, “The suspect did not resist arrest.”
“The effort to locate Tanto began as soon as he was identified as the driver of a red Hyundai Eon who blocked, boxed, shot, and killed Mark Vincent Garalde while the latter was on his bicycle on P. Casal Street, Quiapo district Monday night,” said Armed Forces spokesperson Brig-General Restituto Padilla junior in Camp Crame, suburban Quezon City.
“We responded to the public outcry on social media which showed images of Tanto in his car blocking Garalde’s bicycle; of Tanto and Garalde boxing each other on the road; of Tanto being overpowered, but got into his car, took a gun and shot Garalde on his bicycle, once on the head and four times on the body,” said Padilla.
“We do not tolerate any scallywags. We make sure that those who committed a crime shall be dealt with accordingly,” Padilla said, adding that Tanto, a Philippine Army reservist with the rank of private, was assigned with the 1301st Community Defence Centre in Metro Manila’s northern suburban Caloocan City.
It was the Army Reserve Command that helped snowball a manhunt for Tanto after he went missing from his house in Manila’s Arlegui Street on Monday night; and after his car was found abandoned at the house of his brother-in-law in Nueva Vizcaya, northern Luzon on July 26, said Padilla, adding the latter clue was misleading because Tanto hid in central Philippines.
“We do not condone any wrongdoing committed by any member of our organisation,” warned Army spokesperson Colonel Benjamin Hao.
The Philippine National Police announced it has revoked the licences of Tantos’ three firearms, a .45 Armscor pistol, a .40 cal Glock and a .45 cal Norinco.
Netizens criticised the military because a closed-circuit-television footage which captured the road rage incident also showed how Tanto accidentally injured a bystander, Rocel Bondoc, 18, who was brought to Manila’s Mary Chiles Hospital. She was declared in a stable condition on Friday.
Authorities have blamed lack of control in the issuance of licences to gun owners for the rising number of fatal road rage incidents in Metro Manila.