Caraga highway robbers strike anew

ALEGRIA, Surigao del Norte — Notorious highway robbers struck anew, victimizing government law enforcers yesterday afternoon in Sitio Tungao, Barangay Pungtod.

One army sergeant was killed while a policeman, a driver and three bus passengers were wounded after four fully armed robbers opened fire at the Butuan City-bound Bachelor Bus.

Almost all glass windows of the passenger bus were shattered by bullets from high-powered firearms.

Police and military reports showed that the bus has slowed down in the area as a dead man with a motorcycle was sprawled on the highway with a cargo truck parked on the road side.

But a group of armed men appeared from nowhere and ordered the driver to stop. The suspects then opened fire at the bus hitting its windows and two persons inside the bus.

Wounded were PO1 Henry Saavedra, who was hit in the stomach; bus driver Rolando Duterte, who was hit in the leg; and three other passengers, who were hit by splinters of shattered glass.

The suspects fled from the crime scene with their loot after engaging policemen, who were passengers in the bus, in a 45-minute firefight.

The robbers also reportedly attempted to throw a grenade inside the bus but were repulsed by the volleys of fire from the policemen.

Only minutes before the incident, a soldier brother of radio station manager, John Dangga of dxBC-RMN in Butuan City was shot dead by robbers when he refused to stop when the suspects flagged him down in the same area at around 1:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon.

Col. Ronald Albano, commanding officer of the 30th Infantry Battalion, Philippine Army identified the latest casualty of the unsolved highway robbery incidents as Sgt. Reynaldo Dangga, a member of the 30th IB, PA based in Placer, Surigao del Norte.

The robbers also took away the personal belongings of Dangga. An undetermined amount of payroll money for government troopers was reportedly inside Dangga’s bag which the robbers also took.

Dangga, who was riding a motorcycle and was bound for the 30th Infantry Battalion Camp in Placer town, was flagged down by the robbers who had just held up a cargo delivery truck.

Initial probe results showed that the cargo delivery truck bound for Surigao City from Butuan City was the first to be flagged down by the robbers. Cash and personal belongings of the truck’s driver, Leo Casana, were also forcibly taken by the robbers.