(Eagle News) — A dismissed police officer and two others were killed in a shootout with policemen in Quezon on Thursday, June 25.
In a statement on Friday, June 26, the Philippine National Police said Rico Moog Gutierrez, an intelligence officer before he was dismissed from the service after going AWOL; his cohort, Jose Pitarque Alcaria; and an unidentified suspect died after they figured in a 15-minute encounter with uniformed personnel who were only out to serve a search warrant issued by Regional Trial Court, Fourth Judicial Region, Santa Cruz, Laguna.
Based on a report from the PNP’s Anti-Kidnapping Group involved in the operation, there had been information Gutierrez was hiding his uncle, Jaime Moog, in that house in Barangay Behia in Tiaong, but Moog was no longer in the area when the policemen arrived.
The PNP said Moog has a pending arrest warrant for kidnapping for ransom, and is the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s Most Wanted Person, with a bounty of P500,000 for his capture.
The policemen seized at least two long rifles, one semi-auto shotgun, one cal .45 revolver, 100 grams of suspected shabu, and drug paraphernalia, among others, from the area.
PNP Chief Archie Gamboa reiterated his warning to policemen involved in illegal activities, noting the police internal cleansing program.
“Under the PNP’s Internal Cleansing Program, we continue to monitor dismissed personnel to check if they are still involved in illegal activities,” Gamboa said.
Gamboa said so far, the program has led to sanctions against 14,572 erring personnel including 4,208 personnel who were dismissed from police service from July 2016 to June 15.