5 rob suspects slain in shootout

ILAGAN, Isabela — Five armed men who held up earlier a passenger bus were killed in an encounter with police operatives in Barangay Marabulig here on Sunday.

Chief Superintendent Jefferson Soriano, Cagayan Valley police director, said the suspects were killed during an encounter while trying to escape with their loot from the pursuing joint operatives led by the city police.

Soriano said minutes before the shootout the suspects, armed with two homemade shotguns and two homemade caliber .38 revolvers, held up a northbound Dagupan Bus Line along the national road in Barangay Minante 1 here.

Senior Superintendent Percival Barba, provincial police director, said that as of yesterday, they are still establishing the identity of the slain suspects, who were believed to be members of a highway robbery syndicate operating in Northeast Luzon.

The incident happened two days after one of this region’s most wanted persons was killed in a shootout in Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya.