DOÑA REMEDIOS TRINIDAD, Bulacan–Some 5,000 board feet of illegally cut logs were recovered Friday in Barangay Sapang Bulak in this town after a gunfight between the town mayor and his two bodyguards against some 10 suspected illegal loggers.
In an initial report from Police Senior Inspector Edwin Carranza, Doña Remedios Trinidad chief of police, Mayor Ronaldo T. Flores and his bodyguards were on board a vehicle conducting forest inspection when they chanced upon the suspected illegal loggers, board their motorcycles carrying the illegally hot logs.
When the group of illegal loggers noticed that the vehicle was from the municipal government of Doña Remedios Trinidad, they immediately drew their firearms and opened fire to the mayor and his bodyguards.
The mayor’s vehicle ramped at the roadside where he and his two bodyguards had the chance to retaliate and fired back against the suspects, who quickly fled towards different directions.
Police said that no one was hurt in the incident.
Aside from illegally cut logs, also recovered were five motorcycles left behind by the suspected illegal loggers.
Meanwhile, two forest rangers of the National Power Corporation were wounded by gunfire inside the Angat Watershed Wednesday night in Barangay Kabayunan also in the said town.
The wounded forest rangers, Elpidio Molina and Elmer Tinaypan, were rushed to the Skyline General Hospital in the City of San Jose del Monte for treatment.
Supt. Fitz Macariola, police chief of the City of San Jose del Monte, said the police operatives are currently conducting an investigation on the case. (Manny Balbin/PNA)
