MANILA, Philippines – Police are hoping to get a vital lead from the driver of a Hyundai van that was commandeered by the armed men who strafed the Quezon City home of Social Security System president Romulo Neri on Friday.

Hours before the incident, the suspects befriended the driver in Pampanga and then forcibly took his vehicle, tied up and left him in a warehouse in Quezon City. The driver later managed to escape and report the incident to the authorities.

Chief Superintendent Elmo San Diego, director of the Quezon City Police District, said they considered the driver, whom he did not identify for security reasons, as vital to their investigation.

“He will be the key to the investigation as he saw two of the suspects,” San Diego said yesterday.

On Friday morning, 14 armed men in military uniforms arrived on board two vans and opened fire hitting the gate, the house and several vehicles outside Neri’s house in Barangay (village) Sienna. Neri was taking a shower at the time.

The two vans were found a few blocks away. One of them was a maroon Hyundai with plate number XLC 169.

Police counted 150 bullet holes in the gate and walls of Neri’s house. His van bore around 50 M-16 rifle bullet holes.

Neri was embroiled in the NBN-ZTE scandal last year in which President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s husband and high government officials were accused of taking kickbacks from a Chinese company, ZTE Corp., in exchange for a contract to set up a national broadband network.

Chief Inspector Benjamin Elenzano of the QCPD’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit said his men would get descriptions from the driver to come out with cartographic sketches of the suspects.

Senior Police Officer 3 Leonardo Pasco, one of the investigators, said the driver was in Pampanga early Friday morning when two suspects befriended him over a game of tong-its.

“The two men were speaking fluent Kapampangan when they talked to the driver, so when the driver said he was going to Manila, the two asked if they could come along,” Pasco said.

The driver was near C-3 Road when the suspects took over the vehicle.

“The driver was tied up with cable wires and blindfolded, and thrown in the back of the van,” Pasco said.

Elenzano said the driver was brought to a warehouse in Barangay Manresa, which police learned was rented by the suspects the day before, paying P105,000 in down payment.

The driver was tied to a wooden post but was able to break free, police said.