Freddie Espiritu of Barangay Hulong Duhat, Malabon was attending to his fighting cocks at around 9 p.m. when he noticed a white Toyota Hi-Ace van parked near his residence with suspicious-looking armed men on board.
Espiritu telephoned the Malabon police station’s Tactical Operations Center (TOC) which immediately dispatched a mobile patrol unit to the area.
The armed men, sensing the lawmen’s arrival, scampered in different directions, leaving behind their vehicle (WRJ 754) with bloodstains on the floor, loaded with a steel bloodstained cabinet.
It was later learned that the heavily armed men were suspects in the robbery of a rich businessman in Barangay Taliptip, Bulacan, Bulacan.
PO1 Reynaldo Gabatin said that at least six men, armed with .45 caliber pistols and Armalite rifles, had earlier held up the family of Luisito Samonte in Barangay Taliptip, Bulacan, Bulacan at about 8 p.m.
The suspects reportedly hog-tied the Samonte family and divested them of cash and other valuables.
But failing to open a steel vault containing jewelry worth around P50 million and also cash, the suspects loaded it into their waiting getaway vehicle and sped off towards Malabon City.
The Bulacan police, led by Chief Inspector Celedonio Morales, responding to the robbery, engaged the suspects in a running gunbattle, reportedly injuring some of them.
The robbers outwitted the Bulacan lawmen upon reaching Malabon but not the alert Espiritu.
According to Gabatin, one of the wounded suspects is now being treated at the Dr. Jose Reyes Hospital under police guard.
Superintendent Ernesto Fojas, Malabon police chief, said that the recovered vault with its contents intact and the Toyota Hi-Ace van were turned over to the Bulacan police for proper disposition. – Pete Laude