Batangas, Philippines

The police station of Tanauan City in Batangas province has been been receiving threats after the alleged rubout of four suspects in the bloody May 16 robbery-massacre in Cabuyao, Laguna. The threats followed the ruling of the Commission on Human Rights that the robbery-slay suspects were executed by police.

“Even here in our station, we are also receiving threats. Last night, someone called and told us a group will drive by the station. We are also receiving threats here at the Tanauan City Police Station,” city police chief Superintendent Willie Atun told ABS-CBN’s morning show, “Umagang Kay Ganda.”

Atun said policemen are also monitoring alleged death threats being received by the family of former village chief Vivencio Javier, a suspect in the robbery at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) branch in Cabuyao.

ABS-CBN News

Task Force Subic (TFS) clarified Friday that they have not released the racehorses reported seized Tuesday morning.

Atty. Joenel Aurelio, administrative officer of TFS told The Manila Times that the horses were sent to Jade Brothers ranch in San Pablo, Laguna and Cevila Farm in Malvar, Batangas for safekeeping but clarified that the horses were still under guard by Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG)-TFS operatives.

“We opted to send the horses to the ranches because we have no capability of taking care of them here,” Aurelio added.

The horses, according to PASG-TFS, were undervalued and wrongly declared when flown into Subic from Australia as $800 each, when the estimated value of racehorses is from $5,000 to $35,000.

PASG-TFS officials are also preparing formal charges against a Subic customs official but declined to identify the name of the said official. by Anthony Bayarong

Manila Times

Police in Tanauan City, Batangas on Thursday shot dead three men who were allegedly involved in the robbery-slay case at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) branch in Cabuyao, Laguna, last week.

This brought the total number of dead suspects into four with Pepito Magsino being the first fatality.

The latest fatalities were identified as former barangay chief Vivencio Javier, Angelito Malabanan and Rolly Lachica. They died during what police said was a shootout in Barangay Pagaspas in Tanauan.

Police said the encounter with the three took place past midnight in Barangay Pagaspas.

First to be killed was Javier. His family said about ten men entered their house and locked them in a room, separating them from the ex-barangay chief.

The family said, they heard gunshots and later, found Javier’s body in the dining room.

ABS-CBN News

THE ZOBEL DE AYALA family clarified Friday that there is no Supreme Court decision ordering any member of the family to distribute any piece of land in Calatagan, Batangas, to agrarian reform beneficiaries.

The family made the clarification in response to news items published Thursday on the directive of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza for the implementation of a 1965 Supreme Court decision mandating the family to distribute 2,000 hectares of land in Calatagan to agrarian reform beneficiaries.

In the 1950s to 1960s, the Zobels, through a private company called Ayala y Cia, sold several portions of their massive Calatagan hacienda to private parties.

Sometime within that timeframe, the government filed a complaint before local courts against Ayala y Cia and the new owners of the property in Calatagan, claiming that Ayala y Cia, when it subdivided the land for sale to private parties, also expanded it to cover “part of the navigable water or sea, beach and foreshores,” which by law cannot be owned privately.

INQUIRER.net 

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Human Rights on Friday dispatched a team to Tanauan, Batangas to determine if the human rights of the four men killed in a police operation were violated.

The deployment of the team was ordered by CHR chairman Leila De Lima after alleged firefights occurred between policemen following up the bloody RCBC bank robbery in Cabuyao, Laguna which resulted in the deaths of 10 people.

Earlier reports said that four slain men in Tanauan were suspected of being involved in the bank heist and that the deaths of the four were summarily executed.

The four were identified as Pepito Magsino, Romy Lachica, Angelito Malabanan, and Vivencio Javier.

Police said that the four were members of the Lucido Javier gang. The gang is being linked to the bloody RCBC bank robbery.

GMANews.tv