5 killed in ops vs rob gang

PANGASINAN – Five members of a group allegedly responsible for a series of armed robberies in this province shot it out with police operatives shortly after noon Friday at a hotel in Pozorrubio, this province, ending up dead.

A report from the Police Provincial Office (PPO) stated that the shootout happened at 12:30 p.m. at the RDT Hotel on Espiritu Street, Poblacion District II of the town.

The report said the armed encounter broke out after the five suspects, in their black Toyota Fortuner without license plates, were cornered at the hotel.

As of press time yesterday afternoon, the PPO has declined to give the names of the slain suspects along with other pertinent details leading to the shootout.

Earlier, it confirmed that the group was the subject of an operation by combine elements of the Pozorrubio Municipal Police Station (MPS), the Mangaldan MPS, the Urdaneta City Police Station (CPS), the Cabuyao CPS, the Detective Unit of the Regional Investigation and Detective Management Division (RIDMD) of the Police Regional Office (PRO4-A), the Pangasinan Provincial Investigation Branch (PIB), the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit of Region 1 (CIDG-1), and the Anti-Illegal Gambling Task Force Group.

Investigators said the suspects were involved in half a dozen robberies this year in Regions 1 (Ilocos), 3 (Central Luzon), and 4-A (Calabarzon or Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon).