COMMISSION on Human Rights (CHR) officials will head for Compostela today to investigate last week’s operation by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that killed robbery suspect Alvin Flores and three of his crew.

Atty. Alejandro Alonso, CHR regional director, said one aspect they want to determine is whether the NBI operation was a rubout and not a shootout.

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“We will not be responding to that allegation. There is no need to respond to that,” said NBI 7 head agent Ernesto Macabare, a lawyer and field investigator, in a separate
interview.

He acknowledged that the published reports had a demoralizing effect on the agents.

Flores and his group were blamed for the robbery on a Rolex shop in the Greenbelt 5 mall last month.

For the successful operation against them, the Cebu Provincial Government will give a special commendation to the NBI team and all those involved, like the local police.

A lunch or dinner will be prepared by the Provincial Government, said Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, because she wants “to publicly applaud their accomplishment.”

In a related development, a police official said he does not believe the Alvin Flores robbery group came to Cebu to stage robberies.

Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Lani-o Nerez is more inclined to believe that Flores’s gang was in Cebu to stay away from pursuing law enforcers in Manila.

“Obviously, they made the wrong choice,” Nerez said. He told reporters that for a group to stage a high-profile robbery, they would have to establish local contacts.

Even if some of the group members hailed from Northern Cebu, it did not mean they knew the ins and outs of Cebu well enough to stage a robbery.

Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) Director Jesus Gaquing appealed to landlords to ask for identification from prospective tenants before allowing them to lease space.

He admitted the police failed to notice the group’s presence in Cebu, but explained they could not be expected to find out about everything right away.

“Naa gyu’y impormasyon nga dili nato makuha (There is some information that escapes us),” he said.

Landlords, he added, they should at least attempt to ask for identification, even if it’s just a community tax certificate.

A post-operation report said it was water that spelled the end for four out of the five suspected members of the Alvin Flores robbery group.

Based on the report signed by Atty. Roel Bolivar, it was the need for drinking water that forced suspect Richie Hijapon out of their secure hideout in Compostela town two days before the shootout.

“On Oct. 27, 2009, (Hijapon) was spotted purchasing several containers of mineral water at a Petron gasoline station along Basak, Mandaue City,” said Bolivar, who heads the NBI’s Reaction Arrest and Interdiction Division (Raid), based in Manila.

From there, Bolivar said, Hijapon, who was seen in Mandaue with fellow suspect Roger Belmonte Sanchez, was followed by NBI agents until they reached Compostela, where their hideout was.

The post-operation report, said NBI 7 head agent Ernesto Macabare, is the NBI’s official statement on the incident that resulted in the death of Alvin Flores, Marc Alejandro Salamanca, Hijapon and Sanchez, as well as the arrest of Rene Batiancila.

The report was prepared immediately after the incident and some of is contents were discussed in the press conference the NBI gave after the shooting.

Trail

NBI agents in Manila were already closely tracking down the group, following them from Antipolo, Rizal, to Bulacan, to Pampanga and then to Cebu, where agents lost them.

But with the help of NBI 7, they picked up the trail again in Mandaue.

Bolivar said Hijapon and Sanchez were seen driving a silver Toyota Revo with plate number XGE 164 when in Mandaue. The agents simply followed the car to Compostela, where it managed to shake off its tail.

The day before the shootout, Bolivar said, agents scoured residential areas and subdivisions in Compostela, looking for the vehicle but saw no signs of it.

In the morning of the shootout, agents went to the Stakili Beach Resort in Barangay Estaca, to check if somebody there saw either the vehicle or any of the suspects whose faces the NBI had mug shots of.

The inquiry paid off.

“An employee of Stakili beach resort confirmed that (Hijapon) visited their resort days ago and inquired about the rates but did not return,” Bolivar’s report read.

According to Bolivar’s report, agents were finally able to gather that a group of five men, traveling in a silver Toyota Revo, was at the furnished duplex compound in Estaca, several hundred meters away from Stakili Beach Resort.

He said the information got verified when the agents spotted one of the five suspected gang members, Batiancila, but they could not move in because not all the suspects were around and the silver Toyota Revo was not there.

Based on the post-operation report, it took the agents over two hours to craft a plan to mass and assault the high-fenced duplex.

“The gang scampered away and started shooting at the operatives to evade arrest. The operatives fought back and immediately routed the resistance, killing Alvin Flores and three of his members. Rene Batiancila, who was unarmed at that time, was placed under arrest by virtue of a (pending) warrant,” Bolivar’s report read. (JKV/KNR/MEA/RSA)