“THIS Rolly Talban is an extremely armed and dangerous criminal. We are asking the public to help us track him down. All our officers have been ordered to exercise extreme caution in case they get in contact with the suspect.” Thus PNP-HPG director Chief Supt. Leonardo A. Espina warned the public yesterday as he revealed that more agents are now hunting the deadly member of the notorious Dominguez Group.

The Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol director said Talban and one Ronaldo San Diego were identified  thru a police rogues’ gallery as the same men who snatched at gunpoint a 2009 Isuzu Alterra in front of its owner’s house in a private subdivision in Meycauayan, Bulacan, Thursday.

Witnesses said the two armed men were dropped off in the area by the driver of a Hyundai Starex without license plates. The duo then surprised the owner of the SUV as he was to accompany his wife and a pregnant daughter to the hospital.

The suspects took the victims to Mexico town and robbed them of jewelry as well as cash.

Joint operatives of the PNP-HPG, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Police Regional Office 3 and the National Capital Region Police Office are now hunting Talban, one of the country’s most wanted car thieves.

Espina said Talban escaped during an encounter with the PNP Highway Patrol Group and Bulacan police operatives in Meycauayan City last Thursday which left four of his cohorts dead.

“This Rolly Talban is an extremely armed and dangerous criminal and we are asking the public to help us in tracking him down. All our officers are under orders too to exercise extreme caution in case they get in contact with the suspect,” said Espina.

Espina said information regarding Talban’s whereabouts can be relayed to the HPG Tactical Operations Center. Just call 726-1261 to 62 or 09063745375, he added.

The HPG chief assured that all information will be treated with utmost confidentiality.

The PNP-HPG director said that the NCRPO headed by Director Alan LM Purisima, the CIDG under Director Samuel D. Pagdilao Jr. and the PRO3 headed by Chief Supt. Edgardo T. Ladao are helping track down Talban.

PNP chief Director General Nicanor A. Bartolome earlier ordered his men to provide round-the-clock protection to witnesses with information regarding the Dominguez Group. This came in the wake of the assassination of Cristina Bruan Roxas shortly after she attended a postponed hearing of a carnapping case against Raymond Dominguez and two John Does at the Malolos City Regional Trial Court in Bulacan 11:30 a.m. last January 26.

Espina said Talban uses the aliases Eduardo Fernandez y Lopez,Rolando Fernandez,Eduardo Talban, Rolando/Rolly Talbay y Mendoza and Michael B. Villafranca. The suspect was  identified as one of the armed men who exchanged shots with HPG men in Meycauayan City last Thursday before escaping on board a motorcycle.

Talban was one of the suspects charged for the abduction-murder of used-car dealers Venson Evangelista, Emerson Lozano as well as driver Hernani Sensil last year. He was believed to have killed Teresita Teano in Kamuning, QC, when she resisted as the car theft group tried to steal her brand-new car. The suspect was also believed to have been wounded in a shootout with Task Fore Limbas agents in Project 6, QC, in October 2010 which left two of his accomplices dead.