Two unidentified men burned a taxi belonging to a suspected drug lord in Iloilo City on Wednesday.
The two men burned a “Melvin” taxi that still had the driver’s cell phone and 4,000 pesos inside. The taxi driver, Jonathan Banes was not hurt in the incident.
Melvin Odicta is tagged as the lead person of two main drug groups operating in the regions of the Western Visayas by the Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency.
Odicta has denied the allegations against him – he is facing criminal charges for leading a group of men who attempted to forcibly enter Aksyon Radyo in Iloilo after the station kept airing reports and commentaries against illegal drugs and those responsible for their distribution.
The taxi driver told police that he picked up the two men along Delgado Street in Ililo just past midnight. The two told him to take them to Barangay Ungka in the town of Pavia. Before reaching the town one of the men pulled a gun on the driver in Jaro. The men then tied the driver’s hands and feet and gagged him with packing tape before taking the Toyotal Avanza take and leaving the scene of the crime.
Police found the taxi at 2am in the town of Oton, about seven kilometers outside Iloilo.
The driver managed to free himself and call for help from other taxi drivers.
Police are still investigating the identity of the two suspects, as well as their motive for burning the taxi.