Also killed in the highway heist were robbers Makalam Manlangit and Toto Alamada, both of Pikit town in North Cotabato.
The suspects, with three cohorts, boarded the Cotabato-bound bus in Kabacan, North Cotabato and declared the heist as the vehicle reached the Tunggol-Dunggan stretch of the Cotabato-Davao Highway. The bus is owned by the Wenna Bus Co.
SPO2 Francisco Udani was on the bus at the time of the incident, and he pulled out his pistol and fired on the suspects, killing one of them. Security guard Rick Cadugnog managed to disarm one of the armed robbers with his bare hands and shoot the robber dead using the gun he had taken from the suspect.
The three remaining robbers shot Udani and Cadugnog dead before making their escape by jumping out of the bus.
Witnesses said one of the fleeing robbers was badly wounded and was crying out for help as his two companions carried him away with them as they fled toward a ricefield.
Senior Superintendent Amerodin Hamdag, newly installed Maguindanao police director, said the police, backed by civilian volunteers, are still in hot pursuit of the suspects.
The slain robbers were positively identified by village officials as newly recruited members of the Pentagon gang. They were also involved in a spate of highway robberies along critical stretches of the Cotabato-Davao Highway and the recent rash of kidnappings in Central Mindanao.
Prior to yesterday’s incident, another Wenna bus was victimized. The robbers shot two passengers, killing one and injuring the other, after they refused to give their money.
Soldiers are still in pursuit of the motorcycle thieves who engaged them in a running gunbattle.
The military said the firefight erupted when the suspects, armed with assault rifles and B-40 shoulder-fired rockets, opened fire on the soldiers sent to check on reported sightings of heavily armed men in the area.
According to the military, the suspects fled the scene of the firefight, carrying their wounded companions after they realized that more Army reinforcements were closing in on them.
Soldiers recovered from the scene two unspent rocket-propelled grenades, two Armalite rifles, an M-14 rifle, a caliber .30 Browning automatic rifle and a slightly used 100 cc Honda Dream moped.
In another development, an MILF commander and four civilians, including a six-year-old, were killed and three others were wounded in a skirmish between soldiers and MILF rebels in Pikit town.
Senior Inspector Alexander Tagum, Pikit police chief, identified the slain MILF leader as Dakuliman Duga, alias Commander Big Boy, wanted for a string of heinous offenses and cattle-rustling.
Killed in the crossfire were Tukan Jumnah and her six-year-old child Tata and spouses Tahir and Untan Manginay, all residents of Barangay Bualan in Pikit.
Tagum said soldiers of the Army’s 38th Infantry Battalion were on patrol in Barangay Bualan in search of cattle rustlers, who had been spotted by civilians, when the MILF rebels opened fire and a gunbattle ensued.
Tagum identified the three wounded civilians as Nashrudin Amedrodin and siblings Mohammad and Datu Manginay.