13 killed in Quezon shootout

 Slain men guns-for-hire?

PLARIDEL, Quezon , Philippines  â€“ Guns blazed once again yesterday in Southern Tagalog, but this time the suspected bad guys were mainly the ones who lay dead when the smoke had cleared.

Thirteen men in two sport utility vehicles were killed while a police officer was wounded when the men reportedly ignored a police-military checkpoint at the boundary of Plaridel and Atimonan towns in Quezon province and opened fire.

The gunfight was over in 10 minutes.

As of last night, the 13 remained unidentified. But Chief Superintendent James Melad, Calabarzon police chief, said they were pursuing reports that the men were guns-for-hire from Laguna and Bicol who were supposed to meet a client in Quezon.

Melad said they were tipped off that a crime group engaged in robbery and political assassination was headed for Quezon from Camarines Norte in Bicol.

At 3:20 p.m., the team manning the checkpoint along Maharlika Highway near Barangay Tanauan tried to pull over two approaching Mitsubishi Montero SUVs. One had “VIC27” license plates while another bore commemorative plates of the Philippine National Police Academy.

Col. Alex Capina, commander of the Army’s 201st Infantry Battalion, said the men in the SUVs opened fire, triggering the gunfight. Eleven of the 13 died on the spot; the two others died on the way to a hospital.

Superintendent Hansel Marantan of the Quezon police regional intelligence office was hit in the hand and feet and rushed to a hospital in Atimonan. He was pronounced out of danger last night.

Capina said the police recovered eight caliber .45 pistols, an M16 baby Armalite and an M14 rifle from the 13 men.

Col. Generoso Bolina, spokesman for the Armed Forces Southern Luzon Command, said they had not discounted the possibility that the 13 were communist rebels.

“For now, they are considered members of an armed group,” Bolina said by phone.

The holiday truce between the government and communist rebels is until Jan. 15.

The firefight ensued two days after a mass killing in Kawit, Cavite, perpetrated by a man who appeared drunk and high on drugs, prompted calls for tighter gun control. - With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Alexis Romero