2 killed in shootout in North Cotabato

Two bodyguards of a local trader were killed while two policemen were wounded in a shootout that broke out in Makilala town, North Cotabato on Thursday.

Lt. Juaren Caang, North Cotabato Police Provincial Office spokesperson, said the policemen were serving a warrant to search for firearms in the house of agricultural trader Ramon Floresta when his two bodyguards, both former soldiers, fired at the police team. A gun battle ensued.

Caang said that after the gunfight, policemen seized two caliber .45 pistols, a Tactical-4V rifle, two M16 rifles, two fragmentation grenades and ammunition.

Floresta was arrested but he denied ownership of the firearms seized in his house.

Immigration personnel in Davao being probed for involvement in trafficking

Several personnel of the Bureau of Immigration are under investigation after their alleged trafficking victims were off-loaded from a Singapore-bound flight at the Francisco Bangoy International Airport in Davao City last Tuesday.

Arcelito Albao, National Bureau of Investigation Region 11 director, said the alleged trafficking scheme was discovered when three women were off-loaded from a Scoot Airlines flight bound for Singapore “due to incomplete and improper documents.”

Albao said that when the women when interrogated, they pointed at BI personnel as their facilitators.

4 NPAs killed in Bukidnon encounter 

Four communist rebels, including a woman, were killed in an encounter in the municipality of Impasugong in Bukidnon on Wednesday.

Brig. Gen. Siegfred Tubalado, commander of the Army’s 403rd Infantry Brigade, said combined forces from the 3rd Scout Ranger Battalion, First Special Forces Battalion and two Army battalions were used to engage the rebels in Barangay Dumalaguing in Impasugong.

Tubalado said an Air Force helicopter was used to ferry the dead rebels to Malaybalay City.