Pawnshop burglary tied to ex-miners

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

TWO ex-miners from Benguet Province and a local collaborator are being hunted down by the Cebu City police, who tagged them for last Sunday’s foiled pawnshop burglary.

Complaints of attempted robbery will be filed today, Tuesday, against them before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office, said Inspector Bonifacio Garciano, head of the Investigation and Detective Management Branch (IDMB) of the Cebu City Police Office.

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Police identified them as Kenneth Coplanga, 49, and Madrig Batnag, 42, and said they belonged to the so-called acetylene gang. Their alleged local contact was identified as Baby Toring.

Aurora Gotingco, landlady of the two-story commercial building where the suspects leased space, recognized Batnag from a photograph that the police kept after Batnag and his cohorts were arrested in 2010.

When he negotiated the lease, however, Batnag allegedly introduced himself to Gotingco as Johnny Lo of Toledo City.

Receipt

Gotingco’s children, after seeing the suspects’ photographs, agreed they were the ones responsible for the burglary attempt in Barangay Lahug.

Aside from the photographs, a January 11 receipt from Cebu Home and Builders Center, a hardware store in Barangay Basak-Pardo, also yielded more clues about the suspects.

Police learned from a sales clerk that they were the ones who recently bought pliers, gloves and other supplies. The receipt, just a small scrap of paper, was among the items the burglars left behind.

Coplanga and Batnag were previously arrested last November 14, 2010 near a downtown department store, after civilians reported their suspicious behavior.

Police recovered a sketch plan of the pawnshop near the pension house where the two had stayed at the time.

A small pack of shabu was also confiscated from their possession. However, they were released after posting bail.

Alarm

Their attempt to break into the Gemmary Pawnshop and Jewellery in Barangay Lahug went amiss, after an alarm system connected to the police was set off.

This time, they had dug a 15-meter-long underground canal for two weeks, leading from the building where they stayed to a tailoring shop, Angel’s Sportswear, right beside the pawnshop.

The burglary was discovered at 10 a.m. last Sunday.

The burglars apparently miscalculated, digging their way into the tailoring shop; they then bored a hole in the wall to get to the pawnshop next door.

The pawnshop’s owner, in an interview, revealed their branch in Baybay, Leyte was also the target of another failed burglary attempt.

He showed the acetylene-proof vault in Lahug to reporters Monday, to further assure clients their money and valuables were safe.

Surveillance

About 60 branches of the pawnshop nationwide will be fully equipped with closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, for security.

Garciano, in an interview, said the suspects used to work in a mine in La Trinidad, Benguet, but stopped.

“Nahunong kuno sila kay gi-close man. Wala na’y laing pangita (The mine closed. They thought they had no other way to make a living),” he said.

Base on a police intelligence report, the suspects arrived before the Sinulog revelry.

Garciano reminded business establishments such as banks and pawnshops to comply with security requirements of the police and local governments.

“Dako gyud kayo ni ug tabang namo. Mas dali sad masulbad ang kaso (That will help us a lot in solving cases more quickly),” he said.

Garciano also said that the suspects were believed to use drugs to get high during their operation.

“Para dili kuno sila daling kapoyon (That was how they staved off fatigue),” he said. He also believes the suspects have not yet left Cebu. (Sun.Star Cebu)