Three robbers killed in shoot out with actor

An ex-Filipino action movie star, Sonny Parsons, killed three gunmen in a real life firefight with robbers who took his family hostage yesterday, the police said.

The Marikina City police were still identifying the three fatalities who are suspected to be members of a 'Gapos Gang' of burglars which victimise residents of the eastern Manila suburb.

Based on statements given to reporters by Parsons, a former officer of the defunct Philippines Constabulary, six members of the robbery gang entered his house at around 6.30am yesterday. They held him, two of his daughters and a son at gunpoint and proceeded to tie them up with appliance cords. Parsons said the thieves intended to kill him immediately but the revolver pointed at his head did not fire.

He said, "They even tried to rape my daughters had I not told them that a police patrol would be passing by our residence to have breakfast with us," he said. The thieves managed to take cash and valuables from the house before fleeing.

He said, "As they fled I managed to break my hands free from the cord, took my pistol and went after them." Parsons caught up with the suspects at a street corner just outside his house and fired at the fleeing burglars, killing two of them immediately and fatally wounding another whose throat he slit with a hunting knife during a scuffle. The suspect with a knife wound died around afternoon yesterday, while police are conducting a manhunt on three other suspects who managed to board a passenger jeep.

"It was my training in law enforcement that saved my and my family's life," Parsons, Jose Parsons Gaviola in real life, said. "I asked God to give me one small chance and I will bury these people," Parsons told DZMM radio. "I had no choice but to neutralise them because the police had not yet arrived."

Parsons was a member of the popular Seventies era 'Hagibis', the local version of the American group 'The Village People'.

Following his stint with the band he entered the movies and played lead roles in action films. During the shoot out yesterday, neighbours failed to react immediately because they thought the gun battle was a scene being shot by Parsons for a new movie. "They thought it was a movie scene, but it was worse than that, it was the real thing," said Parsons, who has starred in 29 movies playing tough cop roles. Parsons was also a former city counselor of Marikina.