Five KFRG killed in shootout
LINGAYEN–Five members of a notorious kidnap-for-ransom gang were gunned down Wednesday following a shootout with combined elements of provincial and local police, Presidential Anti crime Emergency Response (PACER) and Criminal
Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) at a checkpoint in barangay Wawa, Bayambang.
A technical record check on the cellular phones of the slain suspects by the police provincial elements here indicate they belonged to the Waray-Waray kidnap-for-ransom group (KFRG), a notorious group with connections to other known syndicates.
Governor Amado Espino Jr., a retired police colonel who served as provincial director of Pangasinan and Region 1 director, commended the police force for a job well done.
“I am congratulating and commending our policemen led by Senior Superintendent Isagani Nerez. I am very proud of them. This should serve as a strong message to criminal elements that they have no place in Pangasinan,” Espino said in an interview with The PUNCH.
Espino’s 10-point agenda lists peace and order as the top priority as “Without it, there will be no progress in our province,” he said.
Nerez, police provincial director, said in a separate interview with The PUNCH that investigations show the fatalities also had links with syndicates known as Baseco, which is based in Manila and Mostrales from Pangasinan.
Nerez said he is thankful to the governor for continuously motivating the police force and credited the latter’s gun ban memorandum issued to the police for its string of successes in the fight against criminality.
The gun ban let to the setting up of more checkpoints to ferret out loose firearms.
The fatalities, identified through their IDs from their wallets, were Joseph Galvez, Agripino Absalon Jr., Dondon Lubris, and Santiago Gongaya. The fifth suspect remains unidentified.
The suspects on board an unlicensed Nissan Sentra were flagged down by lawmen but didn’t stop and instead started shooting that resulted in a 20-minute shootout. The policemen brought the suspects to the Bayambang District Hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival by their attending physicians.
The provincial police said it received information from PACER about the plan of the suspects to operate in Pangasinan, prompting the former to set up blocking forces in all entry and exit points around the province.#
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