4 rob suspects slain in Quezon City

Four suspected robbers who had just victimized a businessman and a call center agent were killed in two separate encounters with policemen in Quezon City Saturday night.

The four slain suspects remain unidentified. Three of their cohorts were able to escape at the height of the gunbattle.

Senior Superintendent Federico Laciste Jr., deputy director for operations of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD), attributed the neutralization of the suspects to the reactivation of the so-called “Night Watch” in the streets of the metropolis.

Laciste said the program was introduced two years ago but was only reactivated recently by Metro Manila police chief Director Leopoldo Bataoil when he assumed his post.

“In Metro Manila, the crimes that occur at night now cover only 57 percent of all the incidents for the whole day. It has gone down from the percentage of about 60 to 70 percent before,” he said in an interview.

At around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Elpidio Piedad, who operates a buy-and-sell business, was waiting for a ride at the corner of Manggahan Street and Commonwealth Avenue when the suspects approached.

Five men – two on a blue Honda motorcycle and three on a red Kawasaki motorcycle – robbed Piedad of P15,000, a cellular phone and a wristwatch.

Piedad reported the incident to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) at Camp Crame, which alerted other police units.

Police officers from Quezon City’s CIDG and the QCPD’s anti-carjacking section were dispatched to the area where Piedad said he was robbed.

Laciste said the policemen noticed two motorcycles without license plates at the corner of Mindanao and Quirino Avenues in Barangay Talipapa. The policemen ordered the suspects to pull over, but the latter opened fire and started a gun battle.

Two of the suspects were killed on the spot, while a third was declared dead on arrival at the Quezon City General Hospital. However, two other suspects escaped on the red Kawasaki motorcycle.

Piedad identified the two suspects who died on the spot as among the five men who victimized him. Police recovered from the suspects a homemade .38 caliber revolver, a homemade .357 caliber Magnum, a .45 caliber Colt pistol and two backpacks with shirts, short pants, a roll of masking tape and electric wires.

At 11:45 p.m., two men grabbed the bag of call center agent Marry Grace Uayan, who was on her way to work and waiting for a bus near a footbridge along Commonwealth Avenue near the corner of Litex Road.

Superintendent Antonio Yarra, commander of the QCPD Station 6, said his men saw the incident and chased the suspects, who shot at the pursuing lawmen.

The police officers fired back, killing one of the suspects. The other was able to escape.

Apart from Uayan’s shoulder bag, policemen also recovered from the slain suspect a .38 caliber Armscor handgun.