Lawman slain by hired guns

STA. MARIA, Pangasinan, Philippines  – A police officer was killed in an encounter here Friday with suspected members of a gun-for-hire gang tagged in a series of shooting incidents in the province’s fourth, fifth and sixth districts.

Superintendent Wilson Joseph Lopez, special operations and intelligence chief of the provincial police, said PO2 Roderick Ballesca was slain, while his colleague at the Pangasinan Public Safety Company in Tayug town, PO3 Sherwin Cuenta, was hurt.

Suspect Larry Garasin sustained five gunshot wounds and was brought to the Sacred Heart Hospital in Urdaneta City. 

Arrested were suspects Cesar Vergara, Nelson Navarro and Hilarion Garasin, while a certain Buddha escaped and is now the subject of a police manhunt.

Lopez said the group was behind recent shooting incidents in the towns of Manaoag, Laoac, San Quintin, Tayug, Pozorrubio and Binalonan.