November 13, 2007 | 12:00am
Four members of the Navotas City police Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit were injured, one seriously, when their patrol vehicle figured in a road accident while they were chasing three suspected robbers on Road 10 Sunday night.
Police Officer 2 Marcos Santos, who drove the patrol vehicle, remains at the National Orthopedic Hospital in Quezon City due to fractures and injuries involving his spinal column.
Santos is now in stable condition, according to Navotas police chief Senior Superintendent Erick Reyes.
He added that PO2 Roberto Balais and Mariano Buntan and PO1 Carlos Yap only sustained minor injuries and were allowed to go home after receiving treatment.
Reyes said at around 10:30 p.m., his office was informed of the presence of at least three suspected robbers in a tricycle parked at the corner of C-3 Road and Honorio Lopez Avenue in Barangay North Bay Boulevard South (NBBS). He dispatched a four-man SWAT team to verify the information.
But as the SWAT vehicle, driven by Santos, was approaching the suspected robbers’ tricycle, the suspects sped off towards Road 10 en route to Manila.
The lawmen tried to intercept the fleeing suspects but upon reaching Marala Bridge at the boundary of Navotas City and Manila, the right front tire of their vehicle exploded.
Santos lost control of the patrol car and hit the concrete railing of the bridge. The suspects escaped.
Navotas police insiders told The STAR that the patrol vehicle’s tires needed to be replaced for the past several months, but allegedly there were no funds available.
“The suspects got away because of this preventable incident and no arrests are probably forthcoming,” they said, adding that they talked to The STAR regarding the incident so their superiors would act on it.
Reyes said “Road 10 and Honorio Lopez Avenue are crime-prone areas wherein robbers often victimized fish traders on their way to the fish port complex. That’s why we are intensifying our visibility patrol on these areas.”
He said the suspects’ modus operandi is to lurk in dimly lit portions of the highway and wait for their prospective victims. After the robbery, they would escape towards Manila.
At midnight on Oct. 20, SWAT police officers engaged suspected robbers in a shootout near the Marala Bridge. One of the suspects was killed and lawmen recovered a homemade shotgun.
A week after the shootout, robbers struck again in the area, divesting a fish trader of some P90,000 cash, Reyes said.
