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Saturday, June 29, 2002
Guard fails gunpowder test
By Minerva B. Gerodias
BOTH hands of the security guard, who confessed he knew about the plan to rob Metrobank, tested positive of gunpowder nitrates, which means he recently fired a gun.
How recently he fired one or why, the test can’t show, but the results could damage his chances of being tapped as a state witness.
Security guard Joel Empiedad “could have fired the shot that killed security guard Alejandro Puza,” said Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Chief Josephus Angan.
A source from the Theft and Robbery Section (TRS) said Empiedad and Puza previously argued, and that the bank management reportedly asked Puritan Security Agency to replace Empiedad because of that grudge.
Empiedad said he did not harm Puza.
Also yesterday, branch manager Emma Salvador clarified the bank lost P500,000, not P2 million as earlier estimated.
Salvador said she was puzzled why Empiedad, who was not guarded by either of the two robbers inside the bank, did not escape when the opportunity presented itself.
The two robbers and their two lookouts remain at large, like their alleged mastermind.
He pleaded
Puza was the night shift guard and Empiedad was supposed to take over at 6 a.m. But last Wednesday, Empiedad allowed two men to enter the bank shortly after he reported for work at 5:50 a.m.
He said in his affidavit that he found Puza with a gunshot wound in his head inside the stockroom that they used as a dressing room.
Empiedad said, however, that he even asked the robbers not to harm Puza.
“Gadala man sila ug pisi nga yellow. Ako silang giingnan nga kon inyong gapuson, gapusa lang. Ayaw intawn na patya kay mangalanak raba ang asawa ana. Kahibalo ko nga dili na lalim kay naa sad gud koy pamilya,” Empiedad said. (They brought a rope with them, so I asked them just to tie him up, not kill him. I told them Puza’s wife was about to give birth.)
Empiedad could not explain why he tested positive of gunpowder nitrates.
But he reported firing a gun two weeks ago in Poog, Toledo City, where he tested a friend’s .38 caliber handgun. (Crime laboratory chemists explained traces of gunpowder nitrates stay in the pores for up to 72 hours.)
Some inconsistencies in his statements were noted.
Bus tickets
During the first interview, he said he just stayed near the main door while the two robbers went to the stockroom and shot Puza. But yesterday, he told reporters he was only about two meters away from the stockroom.
Also, the PNP’s Scene-of-the-Crime-Operation (Soco) team found five bus tickets in the pocket of Empiedad’s jeans.
“Four were for P20 each, possibly from Poog, but the fifth one was only for P5,” said Theft and Robbery Section (TRS) Chief Narciso Ouano.
Ouano theorized that three of the robbers were with Empiedad from Toledo City, while the fourth was just picked up somewhere near Cebu City.
Empiedad said in his affidavit that the four robbers, whose names he did not know, were already waiting for him at the bank when he arrived last Wednesday.
As for the bus tickets, Empiedad and his wife Amelia explained that both of them left Poog with Amelia’s mother. When the bus arrived in Toledo City, two other relatives boarded the same bus and Empiedad paid for their fares.
Mastermind?
Cebu City police investigators are coordinating with the Cebu Provincial Police Office in their follow-up operations, as the alleged mastermind, Nicolas “Loloy” Faran, is a resident and former barangay captain of Poog, Toledo City.
Empiedad has said Faran’s men asked him to let them enter the bank. Otherwise, they threatened to harm Empiedad’s family.
Based on the background check by TRS, Faran has a standing warrant for murder. He is reportedly in hiding.
Faran is a former member of Kadre, a group that helped the government in the fight against communist rebels. About two years ago, he abandoned his post as barangay captain to hide from his murder case.
He owns a red Mitsubishi Pajero, and TRS investigator Felipe Honoridez said he is suspected of being involved in the stealing of scrap iron from Atlas Mining Corp.
But Supt. Agustin Lloveras, former Toledo City police chief, said Faran has no pending robbery cases.
The TRS is also checking on one Ronnie who was Empiedad’s former boardmate in Taboan.
In the bank’s logbook, the robbers left a note that read: “Ronnie Bantay Ha R.I.P.” (Investigators initially thought that referred to the slain guard, Alejandro Puza.)
But about 10 a.m. on the day of the robbery, a man named Ronnie called up the office of Puritan Security Agency, looking for Empiedad. TRS investigators are still searching for further details.
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