Kalinga's Notorious "Robinhood" Fugitive Slain in Police Encounter

BAGUIO CITY – A high-profile fugitive, listed as a national wanted person and dubbed as “Robinhood” of Kalinga, was killed in an encounter with the police in Sitio Tocpao, Barangay Poblacion, Lubuagan town, Kalinga province, before dawn on Wednesday, Jan. 21. The suspect was identified as Corey Dickpus, 64, of Poblacion, Lubuagan. Dickpus was spotted in the area, prompting lawmen to serve arrest warrants for murder and frustrated murder. But Dickpus engaged lawmen who returned fire and wounded the suspect. A police officer was wounded in the encounter and taken to a hospital. Dickpus was also taken to a hospital where he was declared dead. Storied past Dickpus had a colorful past. He was a former barangay captain of Poblacion and the vice mayor of Lubuagan. He ran as an independent candidate for vice mayor in the May 2025 elections where he placed third. In 2000, Dickpus was the most wanted person in the Cordillera region and the main suspect in the shooting of five salt traders from Pangasinan in Tabuk City, Kalinga. Two of them – Johnson Dawaton and Richmund Fariñas – were killed. Despite long-standing legal issues, Dickpus was often viewed as a Robinhood by the community, a perception that allegedly assisted him in evading arrest for several decades. Police allegedly had difficulty arresting him because the people hid him in the remote municipality. He used his resources for initiatives that benefited the people, resulting in strong local support and assistance in avoiding arrest. Due to these, Dickpus was included in the list of national most wanted persons with a reward of P1 million for his capture by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). The town of Lubuagan is only accessible via a three-hour passenger jeepney ride from Tabuk City and is eight to nine hours from Baguio City.