Bulacan cops foil supermarket rob

GUIGUINTO, Bulacan — Guiguinto policemen acted with precision and foiled a robbery in a supermarket here hours after typhoon "Milenyo" battered the province last Thursday.

And for that, Mayor Ambrosio Cruz, president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines’ Bulacan chapter, is elated.

"They acted fast and responded in time, thus foiling the robbery," he said. "They deserve to be commended."

Cruz was referring to the team of Superintendent Ronald de Jesus, Guiguinto police chief, which foiled the robbery at South Supermarket in Barangay Tuktukan Thursday night, hours after "Milenyo" battered Metro Manila and Central Luzon.

De Jesus said seven men armed with M-16 rifles barged into the South Supermarket along the MacArthur Highway and held the security guard at the back door at gunpoint.

Alerted about the incident, the security guard posted at the front door hastily called up the headwaiter of a nearby restaurant, who, in turn, informed the police.

De Jesus said the robbers fired at the responding policemen and managed to escape by ramming their van through the supermarket’s perimeter fence. Police said the robbers failed to cart away any cash and left eight caliber .38 revolvers. They believe that some of them were wounded in the brief firefight. — Dino Balabo