‘Cop founded own gun-for-hire group’

THE POLICEMAN who shot and killed a man and his two sons in Caloocan City earlier this month had turned scalawag long before the incident and founded his own gun-for-hire group, the city police said on Sunday.

Supt. Jackie Candelario, Caloocan police spokesperson, was referring to PO3 Ernesto Castillo, who also died in the shooting that killed Manolito Piccio, 56, and his two sons, Erickson, 37, and Audie, 32, outside their home in Camarin in the wee hours of Feb. 13.

“He founded a group which, if you have enough money, you can hire to set up someone for a hit,” Candelario told the INQUIRER.

Candelario said Castillo was last assigned to the Regional Support Service Group of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

“He was assigned there a few years ago after he went AWOL ( absent without official leave) and was placed on preventive suspension,” he said.

‘A thug in the city’

After some time, Castillo did not show up in his unit for the mandatory daily reporting and was declared inactive by the NCRPO.

“He was considered a thug in his part of the city,” Candelario said, adding that it was during this time that the officer began forming his own criminal group.

Castillo’s name cropped up last year as one of the suspects in the killing of two Caloocan policemen, namely SPO3 Tom Perez and SPO1 Tirso Roncales Jr., in September.

Roncales and Perez were then patrolling the streets in Bagong Silang when they spotted Castillo and two others on a motorcycle carrying guns.

The two officers followed them, but they were shot and killed by Castillo’s group. Castillo and his cohorts then took the belongings of the slain policemen, including a 9- mm Beretta pistol issued to Perez.

Police later arrested one of the three suspects, who identified Castillo as part of their team.

The rogue policeman eluded arrest, until he was killed in the Camarin incident by Audie Piccio before the latter died from his gunshot wounds.

Audie managed to grab the policeman’s gun and use it shoot Castillo dead, according to investigators.

The gun turned out to be the 9-mm Beretta taken from Perez.

“Someone hired Castillo’s group to exact revenge on the Piccios,” Candelario said, declining to elaborate as the hunt is still on for the mastermind behind the multiple murders.