5 men tagged hired guns dead in clash with cops
BAGUIO CITY—Five men tagged as hired guns were killed in a clash with policemen from the Cordillera and Cagayan Valley in Lallo, Cagayan, on Tuesday, a police official said on Wednesday.
Chief Supt. Benjamin Magalong, Cordillera police director, said the armed men fired at a vehicle carrying police intelligence officers past 4 p.m. in Barangay Lorenzo, Lallo.
The armed men, said a police report, were tailing a group of policemen in a white van when the policemen stopped to confront the suspects aboard a Toyota Sedan.
The policemen were met with gunfire, according to the report.
Magalong said the gunfight lasted about five minutes and led to the killing of five suspects. Only two—Michael Bermudez, 33, and Nomer Biendima, 30, both of Peñarrubia, Abra—had been identified.
A check made by police showed Bermudez, who resides in this city, was undergoing trial for an illegal gun possession charge.
Magalong said police believed that some of the slain suspects have links to politically motivated crimes in Abra. He, however, said investigators have yet to establish why the armed men were in Cagayan.
Police seized two baby Armalite rifles, a .45 cal. pistol and bullets from the suspects’ car.
Magalong said the police have made strides, helping eliminate for the meantime politically motivated crimes in Abra.
He said police have been monitoring private armed groups maintained by Abra politicians, after an Abra-based Church and peace convenor’s groups offered to help.
In 2005, the government decided to replace the provincial police force with a special law enforcement task force after a government fact-finding team confirmed reports that Abra politicians have been maintaining private armed groups. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon
