Holdup gang leader killed in Malabon

Police busted a holdup gang believed to be responsible for a series of highway robberies in northern Metro Manila with the killing of its alleged leader in a shootout with lawmen after the group staged an early morning robbery on a passenger jeepney along McArthur Highway in Malabon City yesterday.

Superintendent Ernesto Fojas, Malabon City police chief, identified the fatality as Jordan Nucum, 22 to 25 years old, alleged leader of the Nucum Gang, and resident of Libis, Caloocan City.

Nucum’s alleged cohorts, Joel Quilan, 26, of Block 28, Phase 2, Area 1, Navotas and Alexander Yumol, 26, of Block 13, Lot 20, Malabon City, were apprehended after they reportedly engaged the police in a brief running gunbattle.

Katrina Flaminiano, 19, student, of 27-A St. Rosario Street, Barangay Karuhatan Valenzuela City, said that at around 8:30 a.m., she and her twin sister, Catherine, with seven others, including the four suspects, boarded a passenger jeep (VKV-926) in Karuhatan bound for Monumento in Caloocan City, driven by one Luis Araneta. While they were cruising along McArthur Highway in Barangay Potrero, Malabon City, four of the passengers, armed with bladed weapons and two handguns, announced a holdup.

"One of the suspects on my right poked a fan knife at my side and divested me of my belongings," Flaminiano told The STAR.

After robbing the other passengers, the four suspects escaped by commandeering a passing tricycle driven by Darius Andaca of University Avenue Extension, Barangay Potrero, Malabon.

The victims sought assistance from a nearby police station.

A police team, led by SPO1 Roberto Ladroma, after informing the Malabon police station’s radio room of the incident, together with the victims, chased the fleeing suspects and spotted their getaway vehicle along Gov. Pascual Avenue. – Pete Laude