4 Kuratong men slain in Dagupan

DAGUPAN CITY — Four suspected members of the Kuratong Baleleng kidnap-robbery gang were gunned down after trying to shoot their way through a police roadblock here yesterday.

The gang members were fleeing from police in a gray, unlicensed Isuzu Hi-lander van when they fired on a checkpoint along the highway in Barangay Bonuan Binloc, Superintendent Noli Taliño, city police chief, said.

The four men inside the van were killed in the ensuing gunbattle. An Armalite rifle, a caliber .45 pistol, a caliber .38 revolver, a fragmentation grenade and three ski masks were found in the vehicle.

Three of the fatalities were identified from identification cards found in their wallets as Alejandro Lobaton, Ricardo Cabugayan Pedroza and Diego Jabalon, who had an arrest warrant for robbery from the Balanga, Bataan court. The fourth man remains unnamed.

Senior Superintendent Mario Sandiego, provincial police director, cited information that two of those killed had escaped from a police encounter with another group of suspected Kuratong Baleleng men in Bulacan last Wednesday.

The Oct. 1 shootout left three gang members dead, including a former policeman, SPO2 Richard Ibgos, said to have led the Bank of Commerce heist here and other bank robberies in Metro Manila.

Taliño said the four slain men were earlier monitored roaming this city aboard the Isuzu Hi-lander van and later checking in at the Mabuhay Hotel in Bonuan Boquig.

Sensing the presence of the lawmen, the group hastily checked out of the hotel. Police put up roadblocks, and approaching one such checkpoint in Bonuan Binloc, the gang members fired at the policemen manning it, triggering a five-minute shootout.

Police said a map showing the location of different banks here was also found in the slain men’s possession. — with Cesar Ramirez, Myds Supnad and Jaime Laude