Cops kill 8 kidnap suspects

SAN ANTONIO, Quezon — Eight suspected members of the "Oliver" kidnapping gang, who were allegedly about to kidnap a wealthy Batangas businessman, were killed while a policeman was wounded in an encounter here yesterday afternoon.

Superintendent Rodrigo Agojo of the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) said the encounter occurred around 5:15 p.m. at the border between this town and Padre Garcia in Batangas.

Police could not immediately identify the eight fatalities. Senior Police Officer 3 Edmund Garcia suffered a gunshot wound in the arm.

Agojo said police received an intelligence report a week ago that the gang was planning to kidnap one of three wealthy businessmen from Batangas yesterday. He declined to identify the target.

After receiving the report, agents under CIDG chief Director Nestorio Gualberto and Chief Superintendent Jaime Caringal, PNP Intelligence Group deputy director, hatched a plan to intercept the kidnappers.

Last Monday, police learned that a businessman based in Rosario, Batangas was targeted for abduction yesterday.

Agojo said a combined team of 30 CIDG and IG agents, assisted by local policemen, participated in the operation that involved tailing the suspects, who were on board two cars, over 13 kilometers from San Pablo City in Laguna through Tiaong, Quezon to this town.

The suspects, supposedly on their way to Rosario, Batangas, were divided in two groups of four with one group on board a white Mitsubishi Lancer, with license plates WEJ-933, and the other on board a red Toyota Corolla with license plates UTA-607.

After tailing the two cars for half an hour, the police decided to accost the suspects, whom they knew to be fully armed, and arranged a road block at the border of Quezon and Batangas where they intended to conduct a spot inspection of the two cars.

Police sources theorized that the group may be involved with communist rebel groups because of the presence of communist rebels in the sphere of their operations and because of their boldness in fighting back at the authorities.

The Oliver Gang is believed to be responsible for the kidnapping in January of Batangas physician Arturo Boa who reportedly paid ransom amounting to P1.4 million. Boa has since left the country with his family, the source added.

As expected, the suspects refused to stop at the police checkpoint set up at this town and the suspects fled, forcing the police to engage the group in a gunfight.

Only the driver of the white car, which was in the lead, managed to get out of the car but the police were able to pin him down in a nearby field.

The suspects in the red car, on the other hand, managed to scamper out of the car but the police gunned all of them down. One of the passengers managed to survive the encounter and police rushed him to a nearby hospital but he died along the way, police said.