Troops nab Apayao robbers

ANGELES CITY — Two members of a group that carted away some P8.5 million belonging to the municipality of Calanasan in Apayao and shot the town’s lady treasurer, a policeman and their driver, were caught by soldiers over the weekend, the military said yesterday.

Calanasan treasurer Rosalita Batil, a relative identified only as SPO2 Batil, Calanasan Vice Mayor Perfecto Marrero’s son Jojo and their driver Dante Aklin were transporting the cash to a bank on board a Nissan Frontier when a group of armed men intercepted them along the Claveria-Calanasan road in Apayao last Aug. 20.

The policeman tried to shoot it out but was overpowered and a bullet grazed the left side of his face. The treasurer sustained a gunshot wound in her back while the driver was hit in the stomach. The vice mayor’s son was unhurt.

The suspects fled with their P8.5 million loot and carted away the cop’s service firearm.

But the following day, soldiers of the Alpha company of the 17th infantry battalion and the 51st reconnaissance company, supported by the local police, cornered one of the suspects, who was wounded during the holdup, in Barangay Sta. Elena, also in Calunasan. The suspect was identified as Benito Lara.

Lt. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, commander of the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command, said that Lara later identified his companions as Manuel Daguio of Barangay Flora, Stanley Balog of Swan and Jaime Balabay of Sta. Elena, all in Calunasan.

Dominguez said soldiers immediately raided the houses of the suspects, leading to the arrest of Balabay. The other two suspects remain at large. — With Benjie Villa, Artemio Dumlao, James Mananghaya