TAYSAN, Batangas – Three suspected members of a gun-for-hire group who were conducting a surveillance operation on their next target, a businessman, were killed in an encounter with the police here Thursday morning.
A report from the Philippine National Police Region 4-A (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon area) identified the slain suspects as Solomon Panal, Virgilio Hernandez, and Efren Cruzada.
A report said joint operatives of the Batangas Provincial Intelligence Branch-Drug Enforcement Unit and Taysan police were manning a checkpoint in Barangay Bilogo at past 9 a.m. when the suspects on board a Toyota Hi-Ace with license plate RDJ-679 arrived.
Police flagged down the suspects for inspection. However, the suspects ignored the police and sped off.
Lawmen ran after the suspects who opened fire. Police retaliated, killing the suspects on the spot.
Police revealed that the suspects were involved in a series of gun-for-hire and robbery incidents in Batangas, Pampanga, Bulacan, and Metro Manila.
Some of them were the killings of Elvis Areglo, an inmate of the Batangas Provincial Jail in September 2018; Kenneth Lumanglas, alias “Pekto” and a seven-year-old child and wounding of a civilian last Nov. 14; Eddie Notabio in Bagbaguin, Caloocan City in March 2017; alias “Bogger” in Bagbaguin, Valenzuela City in September 2017; a robbery holdup incident in which P120,000 was taken from an alias “Orbie” in Bagbaguin, Valenzuela in October 2018; and gun for hire activities in Sto. Tomas, Malvar, Tanuan City, and Lipa City, all in Batangas; and Cabuyao City, Laguna.
