‘Protect kin of slain gang member’

THE Lapu-Lapu City Police Office has asked the justice department to place the surviving children and a relative of a murdered robbery gang member and his family under government protection.

Senior Supt. Anthony Obenza, Lapu-Lapu City Police director, told reporters yesterday they have applied for Canillo’s two surviving children to be placed under the Witness Protection Program (WPP) of the Department of Justice.

Also included in the application is Ricardo Beronguis, the brother of Canillo’s live-in partner.

Obenza said they want the three witnesses under DOJ’s protection while the case against the suspects is ongoing.

The three survivors said they witnessed how Ricky Cadavero and three of his cohorts murdered Canillo, his live-in partner Emma Beronguis and their three-year-old son Fernando II inside their home in Barangay Babag II last Thursday.

Canillo’s two surviving children are under the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 7. Ricardo is still in the hospital, recovering from a bullet wound.

The survivors still continue to undergo psychological debriefing.

Obenza said two personnel of the DOJ came to his office yesterday to talk to him about their application.

Empty shells

They are also waiting for the results of the ballistics test conducted on the empty shells found in the crime scene, to determine if there was more than one person who shot Canillo and his family.

Canillo, who was also known as Bruno Villanueva and “Tambok”, was killed along with Beronguis and their three-year-old son last Thursday.

Alleged members of the Kuratong Baleleng Gang led by Cadavero supposedly murdered the three.

Police believed the hit was a liquidation plot, as the victim was a known “keeper” of the gang’s loot.

Canillo was formerly a member of the Kuratong Baleleng Gang before he joined the Waray-Waray Gang, another robbery group.