BAGUIO CITY — Authorities disclosed that personnel from the Bucay Municipal Police Station and the 2nd Police Mobile Force Company engaged in a firefight with a group of armed men on Monday morning at Sitio Nagsangalan, Barangay Layugan in Bucay town, Abra province.

Initial reports said that police and the PMFC were conducting a mobile patrol when they chanced upon more than five armed men and a firefight erupted between the two groups.

As a result, one of the armed men was wounded in the gunfight identified as Romnick Balmaceda, a resident of Barangay Calumbaya, Dolores, Abra.

He was rushed to a nearby clinic and died while being treated, while his companions were able to escape, exiting the encounter site through the forested part of the area.