Five Cordillera carjack suspects slain in shootout

By George Trillo

GERONA, Tarlac -- Police killed Monday morning five members of a Cordillera-based carnapping syndicate, one of them a woman, after a brief clash here, a police official said.

Supt. PoncianoZafra, chief of the Gerona Municipal Police Station, said the slain suspects turned out to have also killed a 67-year-old owner of the vehicle they stole in Baguio City.

“We are now conducting background check to identify all of them,” said Zafra.

But the initial assessment, he said, revealed that all the slain suspects are natives of Kalinga.

Zafra said the operation stemmed from a phoned-in tip about the carnapping of a Toyota Innova (NDO-933) in Baguio City on Saturday night.

The car was then driven by RoldanYmzon, whose cadaver was found at around 8 a.m. Dec. 2 in Pangasinan.

Zafra said the location of the five suspected carnappers was tracked down after they received reports of some men forcing their way inside a farm in Barangay Danzo in Gerona town.

The slain suspects were in possession of various firearms.