CAMP DANGWA, Benguet – One or two of the four suspects involved in the more than P3-million highway robbery in Kabugao, Apayao last May 27 were wounded in an encounter with policemen on May 28, police reported Wednesday.

A report released by the Apayao Police Provincial Office stated that the gunfight between responding policemen and the four unidentified suspects lasted for at least three minutes in Barangay Badduat, Kabugao town.

The Apayao police reported to Cordillera police director C/Supt. Eugene Martin that blood stains were seen along the escape route of the suspects even as policemen recovered evidence that might help them establish the identity of the suspects.

Responding policemen also arrested an alleged suspect hours after the highway robbery but later released him due to absence of collaborating evidence.

S/Supt. Rolando Nana, Apayao police director, reported that the site of the encounter is approximately eight kilometers away from Poblacion, Kabugao, which indicates that the suspects are within Poblacion or from nearby barangays based on the direction to which they fled.

Police earlier reported that the four suspects stopped the private vehicle used to transport the huge amount intended for salaries of Apayao provincial government workers in Sitio Banan, Barangay Lenneng in Kabugao.

Aboard the private vehicles were Condrado Sipsip, Apayao provincial treasurer; Magdalena Bengnan, provincial disbursing officer; Danilo Basilang, driver; Wilda Buslig, a provincial capitol employee; and Lydia Sipsip, wife of the provincial treasurer.

The victims, police reported, told investigators that the suspects were armed with three M-16 Rifles and one .45 caliber pistol and were wearing bonnets.

One of the suspects shouted “Pasensiya na lang kayo, napag-utusan lang kami,” before taking the money and one cellular phone of the victim.
“Possible tipsters might have positioned themselves along the way to monitor the passage of the provincial treasurer,” reads the report of the Apayao police.