Police nab robbery gang tagged in shooting of TV director

MANILA -- Members of a notorious robbery group led by a retired army sergeant and tagged in the shooting of a television director were busted on Tuesday, a few hours after pulling off another heist in Metro Manila.

Police Director Samuel Pagdilao, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said police operatives arrested four suspects of the so-called "Nick-Nick Robbery Gang" after an armed robbery at the Marikina City Public Market on August 28.

The four male suspects were identified as Romeo M. Pascua alias Romy and Meo, 52; Mark O. Gregorio, 26; Bartolome G. Dacoy, alias Tomes, 44; and Roger G. Calagos, alias Toto, 52.

Around 11:50 a.m. Tuesday, the suspects were reported to have held up the Mercy Footwear in the first floor of the Marikina public market.

But incidentally, members of the CIDG National Capital Region and the Anti-Organized Crime Division (AOCD) had just launched a police operation against the group led by Pascua, who is a retired army staff sergeant, about three hours before the hold-up.

Authorities were thus able to immediately mobilize and locate the group, whose escape vehicle was positively identified by witnesses as a Toyota Revo with a plate number XNG-595.

Around 3:30 p.m., operatives who were on board motorcycles spotted and followed along Katipunan Avenue the vehicle of the suspects, who were eventually flagged down along Boni Serrano Avenue.

Operatives seized from the suspects P105,240 cash, three guns and hand grenades, ammunition, bladed weapons, watches, various identification cards, and the getaway vehicle, which turned out to be owned by Pascua.

The four suspects were also tagged and positively identified by witnesses from previous heists.

These include the armed robbery in a market in Mariveles, Bataan on July 14 where the suspects fatally shot two victims and took around P600,000 cash.

Pascua confessed that one of the group's members, Arnel Clarito alias Ornok or Burnok and a certain Nick were also identified as the suspects in the shooting of Crisologo Pangan, ABS-CBN technical director for Pinoy Big Brother, Goin' Bulilit and DZMM, along Mother Ignacia in February.

A closed-circuit television footage that captured the crime showed Pangan fending off the suspects who were after his belongings.

Pangan was shot in the jaw but survived the incident.

Police Chief Inspector Agosto Daskeo, CIDG-AOCD chief, said they are also validating more than 20 other robbery and shooting incidents that were allegedly perpetrated by the group in Metro Manila, Calabarzon, and Central Luzon.

"[We] will assist the victims of the group in coordination with the local police in filing cases against the suspects," Daskeo said. (Emmanuel Louis Bacani/Sunnex)