Metrobriefs

TV talents caught in buy-bust operation

Five men, including two former contestants of the “Starstruck” TV talent search show, were arrested on Wednesday in a buy-bust operation by the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Town and Country Subdivision, Antipolo City. The PNP Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (AIDSOTF) said its operatives nabbed Vivo Ouano, 21, and Jericho Rizalado, 22, both former Starstruck talents, along with Charles Joseph Lacson, Jojo Pangilinan and Joshua Cue, in the October 5 operation.  Seized from the  suspects were 11 self-sealing plastic sachets containing assorted tablets and capsules of Phentermine and Diazepam, both dangerous drugs, a roll of dried marijuana leaves and a plastic tube with a pipe.—DJ Yap

Cops kill suspect in foiled robbery

Manila lawmen thwarted before dawn Thursday an attempt by three suspected motorcycle thieves to rob a junkshop owner, killing one of them in a shootout at Ermita district. Manila Police District Ermita Station 5 operatives were on routine patrol duty along the Lagusnilad Service Road, near Padre Burgos Street, when they chanced upon the three men robbing at gunpoint 36-year-old Teodoro Callos of Mandaluyong City. When the policemen tried to accost the suspects, the men engaged them in a shootout, leaving one of the suspected robbers dead. Two of his  companions escaped.—Jeannette I. Andrade