Cop, 5 kidnap gang members killed in Laguna shootout

A member of a kidnap gang, wearing a police uniform, is sprawled across a pavement after a shootout with policemen along Maharlika Highway in San Pablo City, Laguna. —PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY CALABARZON PNP

LUCENA CITY — Police Officer 1 Ma. Zarah Jane Andal had finished her shift on Monday night at the Candelaria town police station in Quezon province, but when she learned that her colleagues were planning an operation to pursue a group of kidnappers, she did not hesitate to volunteer and join the team.

On Tuesday morning, Andal and three of her colleagues were taken to a San Pablo City hospital in nearby Laguna province after they were wounded in a shootout with members of the kidnap gang. Andal, however, died while undergoing treatment.

Senior Supt. Rhoderick Armamento, Quezon provincial police director, said five members of the group that abducted Candelaria resident Ronaldo Arguelles were killed in the firefight along Maharlika Highway at Barangay San Nicolas in San Pablo City at 6 a.m.

Brave

Arguelles, 40, and an unidentified bystander were wounded.

Armamento described Andal as a “brave and dedicated” police officer.

“She was already off duty when we assembled the team but she volunteered to join the operation,” he said.

“Zarah was at the front line; she hit one of the suspects,” Armamento added.

SPO1 Nerwin Vidallon, Candelaria police desk officer, remembered the 25-year-old Andal as kind and easy to work with.

Ransom payment

Vidallon said Andal, who spent five years in the police force, would often offer food to beggars in the town.

Armamento said operatives from the Quezon and San Pablo City police offices and the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Kidnapping Group were in San Pablo to conduct a follow-up operation on the abduction of Arguelles, who was taken in Candelaria on Monday night.

He said the shootout started when one of the suspects saw the police officers and fired at them during the payment of ransom money for Arguelles’ release.

The suspects, who were using an Isuzu Sportivo registered to a resident of Alaminos town in Laguna, had yet to be identified as of Tuesday afternoon.

Reports said the slain kidnappers, who were armed with rifles and pistols, were wearing camouflage uniforms similar to those used by members of the police Regional Mobile Force Battalion in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon).

A police official said a check with its records showed that their personnel were all accounted for.

Fake cops

“We’ve confirmed, after an accounting [in the regional headquarters], that all [RMF members] were accounted for. Meaning, they (suspects) were fake (policemen) and they must just have sourced the uniforms somehow,” Senior Supt. Kirby Kraft, Laguna police director, said in a telephone interview.

Armamento said Arguelles had pending cases involving illegal drugs in several courts in Quezon and San Pablo City.

“We believe that the kidnapping was drug-related,” he said.