Three individuals were killed – including a four-year-old – and two police officers were wounded after three armed men ambushed the cops while arresting a most-wanted person, Calamba City police chief Lt. Col. Dennis de Guzman said on Monday.
The police were executing a warrant issued by the Calamba City Regional Trial Court against a certain Regie Abarquez in Barangay San Cristobal last Wednesday, de Guzman said in a press briefing in Camp Crame.
‘This is a semi-informal settler area, so there’s a junk shop there in front and a retail store, a sari-sari store. So, there were shoppers, kids playing. When the suspect was being taken to the car, that’s when they were ambushed,’ De Guzman explained.
He identified the officers wounded as Police Chief Master Sgt. Alberto Plaza and Senior Staff Sgt. John Principe, both 44.
He also noted that the two civilians killed were Akhiro Sañez, 4; and Florencia Enmas, 57. The other fatality was suspect Romar Awid.
De Guzman said one of the suspects, Leonardo Rico, was arrested, while another, a certain Itoy Awid, remains at large.
It is unclear how the subject of the arrest warrant and the three armed men were related.
‘The subject of the warrant of arrest is also an alleged member of a gun-for-hire group and they operate from the back of a big factory in San Cristobal (in San Cristobal),’ he added in Filipino.
Police recovered a 9mm caliber pistol loaded with a round of live ammunition, two magazines, both loaded with 14 rounds of live ammunition, an improvised magazine-fed shotgun, and a caliber .38 revolver, according to de Guzman.
He added that the Calamba police filed cases for resisting arrest, disobedience to a lawful order, two counts of murder, two counts of frustrated murder and violation of Republic Act No. 10591 or the Firearms Regulation Act against Abarquez and Rico before the city prosecutor last Friday.