THE TOUGH neighborhood of Barangay 188, Tala, Caloocan City, saw men being rounded up and homes being stormed as NBI agents swooped down for an antidrug operation Friday. PHOTO BY MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
It was like the Zamboanga City siege all over again, said National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) head agent Dave Segunial, describing Friday morning’s street gunfight that killed one of his informants and wounded three agents and a resident.
But unlike the troops sent to the bloody hostage crisis that gripped the southern city in September, his NBI team shot it out in a Caloocan City slum area, where the homes either had doors built extra thick, apparently to withstand bullets, or had back exits and ladders leading to the roof, apparently to provide escape routes.
Shortly before the neighborhood erupted in gunfire, Segunial and his 30-member team arrived around 5:30 a.m., moving past small children on narrow alleys, to serve a search warrant on suspected drug lord Aslani Romuroz on King Arthur Street, Barangay 188, in Caloocan’s Tala area.
They found Romuroz’s house, knocked on the door and were let in by his family members—but did not see the suspect among them.
PHOTO BY MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
Agents surrounded
They were “processing the area” when several armed men fired at the agents posted outside the house, including those in an unmarked NBI vehicle, where two were hit, said Segunial, head agent of the NBI-Criminal Investigation Division.
“They were determined to kill us and positioned themselves on the ground and elevated vantage points to have our agents surrounded,” Segunial recalled.
“It was like the Zamboanga siege, with heavy firepower coming from all directions, hitting four of my men immediately,” he added. “It took a while before we could get to our wounded operatives because of the heavy gunfire.”
The attackers disappeared into the neighborhood after the fierce exchange. Killed was Larry Sultan, whom Segunial described as a former barangay official in Quiapo, Manila, who became an NBI drug informant.
At least one of the gunmen, identified only as Bobby, was seen wounded as he fled with the others.
Crossfire victim
A woman, who was inside a sari-sari store where some of the agents took cover, was hit by a stray bullet in the nape and was brought to the hospital.
The agents later gathered from residents that Romuroz, alias Niknik, was seen escaping through the backdoor of his house, said NBI deputy director for intelligence Reynaldo Esmeralda.
A still undetermined amount of “shabu” was found in the suspect’s house, the official added.
The agents later searched surrounding houses believed to be those of the gunmen and confiscated eight high-power firearms, knives and several sachets of shabu, Esmeralda said.
Several men in the neighborhood were also rounded up for questioning.
In a press briefing hours after the gunbattle, Caloocan Mayor Oscar Malapitan said Barangay 188 had long been known as a haven for drug dealers and the suspected site of a “shabu” laboratory.
A plan was in place for the local police to raid the area because of the reported proliferation of illegal drugs and firearms “but the NBI beat us to it,” Malapitan said.
The mayor said he was “planning to sack the station commandeer in the area.”
A resident, who asked not to be named for security reasons, recalled that the police earlier made several attempts to penetrate the neighborhood for antidrug operations but were forced to retreat after being shot at.
But on Friday, the NBI team returned fire and triggered a shoot-out, a first in the community, the resident noted.