3 robbery suspects slain in Sta. Cruz shootout

MANILA, Philippines - Three suspected robbery gang members who allegedly used a taxicab in their activities were killed when they engaged responding policemen in a shootout in Sta. Cruz, Manila before dawn yesterday.

The still unidentified suspects were also believed to be members of the notorious “Ipit-Taxi Gang” whose modus operandi is to board taxicabs and rob the passenger, with the connivance of the driver, according to Sta. Cruz police station chief Superintendent Nelson Yabut.

“When they fail to find a passenger for an easy target, they also resort to robbing passersby using the taxicab as their getaway vehicle,” Yabut said.

At around 1:30 a.m. yesterday, Jocelyn Arbuyes, 41, went to the Sta. Cruz police station to report a robbery wherein three men in a white taxicab marked “Jomea” (PWE-770) took her handbag at gunpoint.

Police officers conducted a stakeout for the taxi, until the vehicle was spotted at the corner of Mayhaligue and F. Huertas streets in Sta. Cruz.

Policemen approached the vehicle with drawn guns, but were met by gunshots from the suspects as they scampered out of the taxicab. The suspects were killed in an ensuing shootout.

Two of the suspects, described as in their late 20s, with one sporting long hair, were rushed to the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center but declared dead on arrival.

The third suspect was found holding a fragmentation grenade, and police officers waited until bomb experts removed the grenade from the suspect’s hands and defused it.

Arbuyes identified the slain suspects as the persons who held her up and took her handbag. The bag was recovered inside the taxicab with the P11,000 intact.

Yabut said the suspects tampered with the plate number written at the sides of the taxicab by changing the last digit “0” to “8” to escape detection.