Cop, 2 others nabbed in Laguna

CAMP PACIANO RIZAL, Laguna— Three persons, one of them a policeman, were arrested at a police checkpoint in Laguna following two failed attempts to rob a restaurant cashier and a house in Laguna.

Senior Supt. Pascual Muñoz, Laguna police director, on Tuesday identified those arrested as PO2 Saturnino Balba, Mario Lube and Ricardo Caballes, who has an arrest warrant for frustrated murder in 2012.

Muñoz said the three were on board a sports utility vehicle (license plate TVQ-302) when arrested at a police checkpoint in Pila town around 8 p.m. on Monday.

Recovered from the suspects were .45-caliber and .38-caliber guns, a hand grenade and several bullets.

A police source said Balba claimed to be a member of the Police Security and Protection Group, a unit based in Camp Crame that provides security to government officials, and to be working for a former official of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.