ANOTHER TAXI DRIVER KILLED

Number of robberies this year now 14
By Francis Allan L. Angelo

A MEMBER of a teenage gang was arrested Tuesday morning for the killing of a taxi driver Tuesday early morning in Arevalo, Iloilo City.

Insp. Manny Manuel, Arevalo police chief, said they arrested Toto (not his real name) a minor believed to be a member of the TBS-13 gang.

Toto is one of the three suspects in the death of Welter Ermita, 29, Magsaysay, City Proper, a driver of Kaoli Khan taxi unit with registration plate FWC-361.

Ermita’s case brought to 14 the number of taxi robberies recorded by the police this year. He was the fourth taxi driver to die in the hands of robbers also this year.

Ermita was found dead inside his taxi inside Villa Carolina on Yulo Drive Arevalo around 4am Tuesday.

Initial investigation by scene of the crime operatives said Ermita succumbed to 16 stab wounds in his chest, face and arms.

Investigators led by C/Insp. Hilarion Roga said they recovered scissor blades fashioned as knives in the crime scene.

Manuel said they arrested Toto at Landheights Subdivision in Arevalo after witnesses spotted him and two others running away from the crime scene between 1:30am-2am Tuesday.

A pouch containing personal items and documents of Ermita was also recovered near Toto’s house when police arrested him.

Manuel said Toto is believed to be a regular member of the TBS-13 gang while his companions are neophytes undergoing final initiation rites of the gang tagged to robberies and killings of cabbies.

“The suspect admitted to the crime saying it was part of the neophytes’ final rites before they can formally join the TBS gang,” he added.

Manuel said they have identified the two other suspects who remain at-large while Toto was turned over the Women and Children’s Protection Section of the Iloilo City Police Office.

The TBS-13 gang was exposed after one of their leaders was arrested in a buy-bust operation last month.

The gang is believed to be behind the series of taxi robberies aside from allegedly wallowing in drugs and other crimes.