2 bank robbers killed by CIDG

Two suspected bank robbers were killed following a shootout with elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Sta. Cruz, Manila before noon yesterday.

Members of the anti-organized crime task force of the CIDG, headed by Superintendent Perfecto Marin, were able to neutralize the suspects before they could pull of a heist at a bank in the area.

The fatalities, who were in their late 30s, were rushed to the UST Hospital on board a CIDG vehicle after the shootout, according to Superintendent Edgardo Wycoco, chief of the Western Metro Manila CIDG.

The suspects died while undergoing treatment.

Wycoco said the CIDG central office had received reports that a robbery was about to be carried out by the Waray-Waray Gang at an Equitable-PCIBank branch located at the corner of Rizal Avenue and Batangas street in Sta. Cruz.

The suspects allegedly tried to shoot it out with undercover cops posted near the bank, Wycoco said.

Some witnesses, however, said no shootout took place.

Others, howver, saw a bloodied man being brought out of the bank by plainclothes policemen.

The victims were loaded into a white unmarked car which immediately sped off. Investigators failed to recover firearms in the area.

Security guards of the PCIBank branch refused to allow reporters inside the premises.

Police Officer 2 Joseph Kabigting, of the MPD-Homicide Division, said investigators have yet to learn the identities of the suspects.

"The CIDG conducted a surveillance and saw the two suspects board two vehicles. When they spotted them alighting at Batangas corner Natividad streets, CIDG officials Chief Inspector Rino Corpuz and Inspector Locrego Rodrigueza approached them," Kabigting said.

Probably sensing that they were police officers, the suspects pulled out their firearms and exchanged shots with them.

When the smoke cleared, the two suspects were sprawled on the pavement.

During the commotion, the other suspects fled on board two vehicles.

Officials of the Sta. Cruz police station, which has jurisdiction over the area, and the Theft and Robbery Section of the Manila Police District, said they did not receive any flash alarm for the bank heist. – With Evelyn Macairan