Six rob gang men slain in Bulacan shootout

BALIUAG, Bulacan — Six members of a notorious robbery gang led by a former communist rebel were killed in a shootout with law enforcers here Tuesday night.

Superintendent Jolly Dizon, this town’s police chief, identified the slain suspects as Jayson Ramos alias Kumander Marlyn, Hinorio Simbulan, Arnel Ramos, Renato Balajadia, Daniel Piosca, and Florentino Mallari.

Police said the suspects, said to belong to the so-called "Shotgun Gang," had robbed a piggery near the Candaba-Baliuag boundary.

Informed about the robbery, Dizon immediately dispatched a tracker team led by Inspector Florencio Morales, which less than five hours later, spotted the suspects’ three motorcycles parked in front of a videoke bar in Barangay Bagong Nayon here.

The suspects saw the policemen and fired at them, resulting in a brief shootout, after which all six lay dead.

Police said Simbulan and Jayson Ramos, a son of the late Bienvenido Ramos alias Kumander Bata, used to be members of the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan, a communist breakaway group.

Police said Ramos was charged with robbery-holdup in Guimba, Nueva Ecija six years ago. He was also tagged in the shooting of a Meycauayan policeman under the Baliuag flyover last Sunday.

The "Shotgun Gang" was implicated in at least 15 robbery-holdups in Baliuag town in the past two weeks, police said.

Police found a fragmentation grenade, a caliber .38 revolver and a 9-mm pistol as well as 67 spent shells at the scene of the shootout. — With Ric Sapnu