• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Policemen arrested two of the six armed suspects linked to the highway robbery and shooting of two victims in Brgy. Robles, La Castellana, Negros Occidental, several hours after the commission of the crime on Tuesday.
PMaj. Rhojn Darrel Nigos, acting police chief of La Castellana, said that the two suspects, identified as Rene Boy Abrico, 45, and Augusto Tubongbanua Jr., 39, both residents of hacienda Wawa, Brgy. Pandanon Silos, Murcia, were apprehended in Hacienda Isabel, Brgy. Sag-ang, La Castellana.
Nigos, in his report to provincial police director of Negros Occidental, PCol. Leo Pamittan, said the apprehension of the two suspects was achieved through information relayed to them by residents in the hacienda.
He reported that the arrest of the two suspects yielded P2,500 each.
On Tuesday, six unidentified armed men waylaid and opened fire at the occupants of a vehicle along the highway at Sitio Lapak, in Brgy. Robles, La Castellana, Negros Occidental.
Two of the five occupants of a red Toyota Innova vehicle, identified as Shem Job Galimba, 34, and his mother, Chona, 60, were reported by the police to have been injured.
Nigos said the suspects also divested the victims of P24,000 in cash, two cellular phones and assorted gadgets and jewelry, with an estimated value of P50,000.
The joint pursuit operations of the PNP Special Action Battalion 6 and Regional Mobile Force Battalion 6 troopers, as well as La Castellana Police Station, against the four remaining suspects, are still ongoing as of press time.*
