2 cops, 3 security guards killed in Cavite shootout

BACOOR, Cavite — Two policemen and three security guards were killed when personnel of two rival security agencies manning a housing project site of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) here traded gunshots early yesterday morning.

Bacoor policemen SPO1 Mario de Guia, 32, and SPO2 Freddie Calvo, 34, were fatally shot as they responded to a call for assistance during the armed confrontation between guards of the Alert Security Agency and Saint Michael Security Agency.

The slain guards were Renato Tobo, Felipe Felicilda and Alfonso Pangilinan, all of the Alert Security Agency. There were no casualties among the Saint Michael guards although one of them was reportedly brought to an undisclosed hospital for gunshot wounds.

Police arrested 26 Alert personnel who were said to have engaged responding lawmen in a shootout, mistaking them to be Saint Michael guards.

It was the Alert people who reportedly sought police help but they failed to recognize the law enforcers. "It was so dark that I did not know who were our opponents," said Tobo’s younger brother Mario, 27.

The Alert guards claimed that the Saint Michael personnel were the ones who first attacked their barracks shortly before midnight Tuesday.

Chief Inspector Mario Reyes, Bacoor police chief, said the two security agencies have been battling for control of the GSIS housing project site.

Both agencies, he said, claimed to have been contracted by the government-owned corporation to keep squatters off the property.

Police seized seven 12-gauge shotguns and seven caliber .38 revolvers from the arrested security guards.

Most of those arrested sustained bruises and cuts as they tried to run away when policemen from other Cavite municipalities rushed to the scene to augment their Bacoor colleagues.

Reyes said multiple homicide charges were being readied against the arrested security guards.