4 hijack suspects dead in clash with policemen

CAMP PACIANO RIZAL, Laguna—Four suspected hijackers transporting stolen LCD TV sets were killed in a clash with police in San Pedro, Laguna, Wednesday.

Only two of the suspects were identified. They were Joseph Alipio (age unknown) and Alberto Cahandig Jr., 37, both from Taguig City.

In an e-mail statement, Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao Jr., head of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said the suspects were former inmates at the Bicutan jail recruited by a certain Danilo Ferrer, head of a crime group that hijack delivery trucks and operate in Cavite, Batangas and Laguna.

The four suspects were on board the hijacked truck that carried 192 LCD TV sets and an Isuzu Crosswind when they encountered a group of policemen on Victoria Road in Barangay San Antonio past 3 a.m., according to Supt. Kirby Kraft, police chief of San Pedro.

Kraft said police were alerted about the hijacked truck and set up choke points. “The suspects fired first,” he said.

The slain suspects died of multiple gunshot wounds. Kraft said although police had found no other suspect near where the clash took place, they weren’t “discounting the possibility that they have other companions.”

The truck came from the warehouse of Wei Dynamics Technology Trading Corp. in Trece Martires City, Cavite, to deliver the TV sets, worth at least P1 million, to dealers in Sucat, Paranaque City, when hijacked by the suspects on Centennial Road in Kawit, Cavite, around 1 p.m. Tuesday.

The suspects tied the truck driver and helper and left them on a vacant lot in Barangay Kaong in Silang town. The victims sought help from the Cavite police.

Authorities recovered the stolen TVs, an M-16 rifle, a .45 cal. pistol and ammunition from the scene of the clash.