PNP cites cops for neutralizing Bicol felon
THE Philippine National Police (PNP) headed by General Benjamin C. Acorda Jr. will fete today the officers and men who killed Bicol’s felon in Parañaque City on Wednesday last week.
Members of the Regional Intelligence Unit 5 and National Capital Region of the PNP Intelligence Group, the National Capital Region Police Office’s (NCRPO) Regional Special Operations Unit-Regional Intelligence Division and the Police Regional Office (PRO)-5 RSOU and RID worked relentlessly to put Gilbert Saysay Concepcion, the top felon, to rest, the Journal Group learned.
The PNP-IG operatives under Brigadier Gen. Romeo J. Macapaz, the NCRPO under Major Gen. Jose Melencio C. Nartatez Jr. and the PRO5 under Brig. Gen. Andre P. Dizon worked overtime to hunt and kill Concepcion.
Last Jan. 24, PNP agents finally put an end to the checkered career of Concepcion, a former New People’s Army rebel who became an Army deserter before turning into Bicol’s most wanted criminal since 2012.
An intelligence-driven operation past 6 p.m. last Wednesday led officers to his hideout in Sitio de Asis, Barangay San Martin de Porres in Parañaque City.
Concepcion is the subject of at least six warrants of arrest for two counts of kidnapping with murder, kidnapping and serious illegal detention, murder, two direct assault cases and a rape case issued by different regional trial courts in Albay, reported RIU-NCR chief Colonel Joselito G. Esico.
Concepcion is also the subject of a P420,000 reward offered by the Department of Interior and Local Government.
He has been accused of leading the Concepcion Criminal Gang which has gained notoriety in Bicol and adjacent areas for involvement in gun-for-hire, extortion, robbery and drug trafficking.
Also known as alias Bet/Pogi, Concepcion was described by the PNP as a former member of the NPA which targeted soldiers and policemen in Bicol before being recruited by the Philippine Army as an ‘action agent’ in 1999.
He became an Army enlisted personnel in 2001 assigned as an intelligence operative of the Army’s 9th Infantry Division.
However, he went on AWOL (Absence Without Official Leave) in 2007 after he got involved in the killing of the Sasota brothers over a land dispute in Sitio Pinagbadilan in Bgy. Buga in Libon, Albay in 2006.
He was also reported to have killed the mother of the Sasotas brothers who filed a criminal complaint against him.
After going AWOL, Gilbert reportedly formed the Concepcion Criminal Gang with his brothers and some friends.
The gang engaged in gun-for-hire, robbery-extortion, abduction, rape, gunrunning and other lawless activities in Bicol and later became notorious for acting as a ‘private armed group’ of some local politicians.
Gilbert and his brother Ramson were identified as the gunmen who killed Makati City Engineer Nelson Morales in Bgy. Estancia in Malinao, Albay on September 11, 2012.
He was also tagged as the killer of then Senior Inspector Jorem Kallos, the deputy chief of the Libon Municipal Police Station while the latter was leading an anti-criminality checkpoint in Bgy. Buga in Libon on December 29, 2015.
The PNP said that the suspect was also accused of masterminding the assassination of a number of barangay officials in Libon who joined government efforts to neutralize them and the massacre of the Ongob family in Bgy. Along-Ong in Libon on December 2, 2014.
The Concepcion Group leader was also tagged as the prime suspect in the abduction and murder of six persons led by Glen and Gilbert Quinzon whose bodies were chopped off and buried in a shallow grave in Bgy. Molosbolos in Libon.
The victims were summarily executed by the group amid suspicions they were acting as police informants.
A police report also said that Gilbert was also responsible for the killing of his own father inside their residence in Bgy. Molosbolos.
On November 14, 2021, a sub-leader of the Concepcion Gang identified as Gilbert’s brother Emmanuel was killed in a firefight with PNP and National Bureau of Investigation operatives in General Trias, Cavite.
