05/10/2026
Arsenio “Boy Negro” Cayanan and the Manila Policeman He almost got killed during a robbery incident
'Boy Negro' a psychopath killer?
When I first reported the exploits of Arsenio Cayanan alias "Boy Negro," the character make-up of the man didn't show anything more than a slippery highwayman operating in the out-skirts of Bulacan. He was just another hoodlum leader whose successful jeepney holdups daily was attributed to his strong "alliances" with some policemen of the province.
I was intrigued by this man who seem to be short on temper and who seem to have no compunction in killing policemen. So I sniffed around and managed to get a statement from one of his first ever captured henchman, Aladin Gocela. I also talked to Cpl. Antonio Cruz of WPD Station 1 who survived his knife wounds when he was ranged upon by Boy Negro and his boys during one of their jeepney holdups.
It seems that Boy Negro, during the early part of his criminal career, crossed some policemen in some unclear deals and he was snuffed one evening and tortured. Before they could "salvage" him, he managed to escape. From then on, when given the opportunity, he shoots anybody in uniform.
In that Guiguinto, Bulacan holdup last Jan. 30, a policeman-passenger who drew his gun was disarmed and in the ensuing struggle was kicked out of the moving jeepney. It was his luck that he fell off preventing Boy Negro from shooting him as the jeepney sped away. The driver, upon reaching the municipal building of Guiguinto, rammed the jeepney on a post and shouted that they're being held up. Boy Negro shot the driver in the neck.
When Fire Chief Rodolfo Adviento approached the jeepney to investigate what looked like a vehicular accident, Boy Negro, thinking the uniformed fireman was a policeman, immediately shot him. Chief Adviento died on the spot.
Two days before the Guiguinto holdup shootout, in Jan. 28, Manila's Cpl. Cruz was in a passenger jeepney when Boy Negro and his boys announced the holdup in Meycauayan. When Cpl. Cruz tried to draw his fi***rm, he was attacked by the gang with knife thrusts and was summarily disarmed. Boy Negro, who suddenly was seething in anger when he learned Cruz was a policeman, shouted invectives at him and cocked his .38 revolver and aimed at Cruz' head. Cruz, already bleeding profusely because of his knife wounds, just closed his eyes and prayed like he never prayed before. Luckily, one of Boy Negro's henchmen, pleaded with him to spare the already prostrate Cruz. And that's how his life was spared.
Boy Negro disembarked all the jeepney passengers except for one pretty maid whom they took with them and later r***d...
hold up the jeepney where Cpl. Cruz was stabbed and almost killed.
Cpl. Cruz on the other hand, is now going about his duties without a fi***rm. His family is fearful that with no gun to protect himself with, he is an open target for revenge of other police characters whom he had earlier brushed with. To compound the problem, he is now being asked by the department to pay back the city the cost of his "lost" fi***rm. And this is on top of his spending for medications for wounds he suffered in line of duty.
As such as there is need to stop Boy Negro at all cost, there is also the need to take a second look at the case of Cpl. Cruz. He did not lose his fi***rm out of negligence but was overpowered in trying to protect fellow victims in a jeepney holdup. For now he has wounds to show for the brave effort.
Perhaps, Mayor Mel Lopez should stop the city government from requiring that Cpl. Cruz pay for his snatched fi***rm and instead order the issuance of another to the policeman to make him effective and safe.
I cannot understand these Muslim separatists who. They want at first batting for autonomy or some amount of political self-determination among the purely Muslim populated islands of Mindanao. When the government acceded to talk to them along these lines, they changed their minds and wanted more.
Now they want to secede completely from the Philippines in the process taking away 23 provinces, the majority of which are populated heavily by Christians.
It's like the case of giving a finger and the whole arm gets bitten off.
I think all the MNLF groups, fragmented into several major factions and killing each other for supremacy, should realize by now that the government, though quite accommodating, will never stand for cutting up the country and giving up land in the Muslim south.
While the acceptance of the MNLF into the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) may give the rebels the status of a de facto government, such an external "blessing" should not change anything in the right of the Philippines to be on top of what is purely an internal affair. And the Mindanao conflict is exactly what it is. An internal problem.
Now the government should draw this line clear and straight.
Yes, if the diggings at Fort Santiago is really in preparation for a PDP-Laban rally, how come frantic excavations with the use of heavy equipment was cordoned by heavily armed Presidential Security Guards.
Why were Manila policemen and reporters similarly barred from entering the park if the preparations were only for a "party"?
Are we again being told tall tales? If gold diggings are really going on at Fort Santiago, the public should be told. Then nobody will say that some privileged few has pocketed whatever was found.
