NBI steps into Baliuag ‘rubout’

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) formed a team yesterday to conduct a parallel investigation into what the Baluiag, Bulacan police claimed was a shootout last Sept. 6 that killed six suspected robbery gang members, four of whom, however, turned out to be innocent civilians.

Regional director Reynaldo Esmeralda, of the NBI’s Special Task Force (STF), said the victims’ relatives have asked the bureau to step into the case and conduct a separate probe.

Esmeralda said he has tapped NBI-STF executive officer Arnel Dalumpines to head the team that would look into the alleged rubout.

"We were supposed to get their statements, but the relatives were still in a state of shock and were not yet ready. We had to reset the date to take their statements," he said.

Four of the six fatalities — Leovino Gonzales, Daniel Piosco, Florentino Mallari Jr., and Renato Balajadia — were said to be mere customers of the Janet’s Videoke Bar on B.S. Aquino street in Barangay Tangol, Baliuag town where the supposed shootout occurred.

The 66-year-old Gonzales was a former sheriff at the Malolos City regional trial court in Malolos before he retired in 2001. He was the manager of a funeral parlor located near the videoke bar.

The family of Piosco, a former overseas worker, meanwhile, owns a trading company.

The families of both Gonzales and Piosca insisted that they had no criminal records.

The police operation was reportedly part of their campaign against highway robberies in Central Luzon.

One of the victims was said to be Honorio Simbulan, a former member of the communist breakaway group Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan, who allegedly headed the "Shotgun Gang" tagged in several robberies.

The sixth victim was identified as Simbulan’s nephew Daniel.

Police earlier claimed that the six victims were inside the videoke bar when they allegedly traded shots with law enforcers.

Witnesses, however, said the policemen barged into the bar, asked all the women to leave, and then gunned down the six men.