A gun-for-hire group tagged in several assassinations and robbery-hold up cases in Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Zamboanga del Norte and Misamis Occidental in Mindanao, was reportedly busted in Bayawan City with the arrest of two members believed involved in the murder of Regional Trial Court Branch 63 Judge Orlando Velasco.

Velasco was gunned down in front of his residence in Bayawan City on July 27, 2007 by motorcycle-riding suspects who followed him from a social function.

Task Force Velasco headed by PNP provincial director S/Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe, and composed of the National Bureau of Investigation, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, and the Bayawan City police was formed to track down the suspects.

In a checkpoint conducted in Sitio Busque, barangay Nangka, Bayawan City on January 3, 2008 at about 11 p.m. by the Bayawan police headed by Supt. Roy Abella, the Task Force Velasco flagged down and arrested the two suspects, identified as Gilbert Garsula Caballero, 35, married, and Robert Caborasan Agbogaa, 39, single, both of Culipapa, Hinobaan, Negros Occidental.

Caballero was wearing an AFP uniform while driving a Honda XRM motorcycle.

Confiscated from them were a homemade shotgun with magazine and four live ammunition for 12-gauge shotgun.

The police also confiscated one magazine containing 14 live ammunition for caliber .45 pistol, which was disposed of by the suspects before reaching the checkpoint.

Cases for violation of PD 1866 as amended by RA 8294 were filed against Caballero and Agboga-a at the Prosecutor's Office in Bayawan.

A case of murder was filed against Caballero as the alleged gunman in the murder of Velasco, Buenafe said.

Caballero and Agboga-a were previously reported to be members of the Ogabang Gun-For-Hire and robbery criminal gang headed by Boboy Ogabang of Culipapa, Hinobaan, Negros Occidental along with Delfin Ogabang, Pulin Ogabang, Ricky Ogabang, Renante Delloso, Landring Mamac and a certain Francis, Buenafe also disclosed.*JG

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