LUCENA CITY, Quezon, Philippines—Three persons suspected to be behind the frequent defacement and loss of public roads signs along Quezon highway have been arrested, police said Sunday.

Superintendent Ronaldo Ylagan, Lucena police chief, identified the suspects as Bhon Jopet Buban, Allan Pineda, both presently detained at the city jail and Jonathan Pocamas, who is being treated in a local hospital here for a gunshot wound.

Police said that shortly before midnight Friday, police detachment in the village of Gulang-Gulang received a report that the suspects, reportedly under the influence of liquor, were destroying warning signs of the Department of Public Works and Highway at a road construction project along the diversion road.

Two policemen were immediately dispatched to the area to arrest the vandals who were caught in the act of destroying road warning signs.

Two of the suspects, Buban and Pineda did not resist arrest, report said.

However, when Senior Police Officer 4 Romarico Ramos was about to handcuff Pocamas, the latter tried to stab the policeman with a fan knife.

The cop parried the attack and to defend himself shot the suspect with his service firearm.

The wounded suspect still managed to run away leaving behind his knife, report said.

On Saturday morning, lawmen collared Pocamas at the Quezon Medical Center here after a hospital staff informed the police station that a man was seeking treatment from a gunshot wound.

Defacement and loss of warning signs imperil the safety of motorists especially at night, according to DPWH officials.

Last May, a Manila-bound passenger bus crashed in an excavated portion of another DPWH road project along the diversion road one rainy evening after the driver failed to notice the construction due to the absence of warning signs.

Fortunately, no one was hurt in the accident.