7 'robbers' killed in Batangas encounter

Batangas Provincial Police Office Director Edwin Quilates said based on initial report, the suspected robbers, who were onboard a white van, rammed at the barriers in a Commission on Elections checkpoint in Barangay Berinayan, Laurel town, around 4:30 a.m. Monday, February 25.

Personnel of the Agoncillo Municipal Police Station received a report about the incident, prompting them to immediately establish another checkpoint at the boundary of Agoncillo and Laurel towns.

Quilates said instead of stopping at the checkpoint, the suspected robbers sped off and fired at the policemen, resulting in an encounter.

“A brief chase ensued and [the suspected robbers were] cornered by another patrol team of said [policemen] stationed few meters from the established checkpoint. The suspects fired upon the responding personnel, which prompted the latter to return fire,” he said.

He said the suspected robbers were killed in the gunfight, adding that no cops were hurt in the incident. Quilates said investigators are still in the process of determining the identity of the slain men who were reportedly members of "Baklas bubong" that was involved in a series of robberies in Batangas.

The latest victim of the group was a grocery store in Taal where they took at least P150,000, police said.

The group is also allegedly responsible for two robbery incidents in an agriculture store in San Jose town where they seized around P1.3 million cash.

"Pito 'yung napatay ngayon. Wala pa tayong identities. Hindi natin alam kung may kasama pa itong mga 'to," he said.

(Seven were killed today. We don't have identities yet. We also don't know if they have other companions.)

"Doon sa pag-aaral namin doon sa CCTV, parang may kasunod pa na isang sasakyan na maaaring nakalusot. Hindi namin napansin, nakatakbo... So maaaring may kagrupo pa itong napatay na 'to," he added.

(Based on the CCTV footage, it appears there's another car that was able to escape. We did not notice it, so it's possible that they were with another group of robbers.)

Sgroup EVEN suspected members of a robbery were killed in a firefight with policemen Monday morning in Agoncillo town, Batangas.