Highway man killed in Bulacan shootout

CAMP ALEJO SANTOS, Bulacan — A suspected highwayman in this province was killed while two of his cohorts were wounded in a shootout with lawmen at Barangay Pio Cruzcosa in Calumpit town at dawn yesterday.

Bulacan police chief Senior Superintendent Felizardo Serapio Jr. identified the fatality as Jessie Sarabusing, 35 of Phase 18, North Harbor, Manila who was killed in the brief gunbattle.

Wounded during the shootout was Fernando Villagonza, 29 , of Dagupan Street in Tondo, Manila who sustained a gunshot wound in his genitals while Manolo Gonzaga, 32, of Putatan, Muntinlupa City, broke his leg when he tried to escape. Seven

Serapio said both suspects were brought to the provincial hospital here for treatment while seven other suspects are in police custody.

Serapio identified four of the seven suspects as Nito Sarabusing, 29; Arnell Callada, 21; Noveleto Gunato, 33; and Ronaldo Pixo, 26. An unidentified security guard and two bystanders were also arrested, he said.

Serapio said the suspects were cornered by policemen at a warehouse in the Agro-Industrial Subdivision in the said barangay while they were unloading two container vans filled with coffee and chicken feed worth an estimated P2 million.

Recovered from the warehouse were two 40-footer container vans (THN-195 and PRN-432), while a .38-caliber revolver and a hand grenade were recovered from one of the suspects.

Serapio said that at around 7 p.m. Tuesday night, the suspects, on board a Mitsubishi L-300 van, took the container vans from the Nestle warehouse in Plaridel town at gunpoint and brought the goods to Calumpit.

Serapio said appropriate charges are now being readied against the suspects.

On Tuesday, police arrested six suspected members of a hijacking syndicate in Barangay Iba in Meycauayan town. The alleged robbers had just hijacked a ten-wheeler truck containing 500 sacks of refined sugar with an estimated value of P900,000.