|
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Swat search for escapees rouses folk
RESIDENTS of Lapu-Lapu City and Cordova town were roused from their afternoon sleep last Tuesday when armed Swat members went looking for two escapees from Negros Occidental.
SPO4 Geoffrey Baguio, with combined forces of the Lapu-Lapu City Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) and the Negros Occidental Mobile Group, came to Sitio Trigon in Barangay Babag at 3:30 p.m. the other day.
The escapees, Jonathan Mahinay, 28 and Jayson Entica Rosalito, 18, were believed to be armed and dangerous.
The police first searched a shop in the place but the suspects were not there.
Shop workers were mum as they watched SWAT members, wielding baby armalites with telescopic sights, swarmed their workplace.
A Negros Occidental PNP member in plainclothes also entered a nearby house that has a store, where some workers rested on the floor. The house owner protested when he entered and looked at the men resting inside.
One of the men whispered for the policeman to search the other house.
Indeed, Mahinay, who is facing a rape case, was spotted playing cards with his co-workers at the other house. Mahinay said he did not know where Rosalito was.
This prompted Baguio to ask the shop owner because the two are his workers.
The owner ordered one of his lady staff to guide the police to their quarry site in Barangay Ibabao, Cordova town, some three kilometers away.
Explosives
The police proceeded to the place, where they stopped in the middle of a vast 10-foot tall grassland.
SWAT member PO3 Jacinto Mandal narrated that when they alighted and swiftly walked towards the quarry workers, who were some 100 meters away, the workers scampered to different directions clutching their explosives.
Authorities fired successive warning shots and chased the workers when they refused to stop.
The police did not know who among the dozen fleeing workers was Rosalito, because the lady guide was still behind them, walking.
Each SWAT member chased each of the fleeing worker but they failed to catch one. Some workers opted to stay, though, as PO2 Aldin Daño ordered them to sit on the ground. Others were restless and wanted to move away, prompting Daño to exert force to make them stay.
When the lady guide finally came to the site, she gestured to Daño who Rosalito was. He was among the workers who stayed.
PO2 Vicente Aranjuez of the Negros Occidental 1st Mobile Group said the two were among the six prisoners who escaped the Toboso Municipal Jail last July 1.
Mahinay told Sun.Star that they detached the cell’s water pipe and used it as a lever to force open the gate lock.
At large
Aside from the two, the escapees were Ronald Aton, Ronald Mosqueda, Dante Viajedor and Oscar de la Cruz. Only Viajedor and de la Cruz remain at large, and are believed to be in Manila.
Aranjuez said he is yet to receive his three-month suspension without pay for that mass jailbreak, which caused his relief and reassignment to the 1st Mobile Group.
His group mates, PO3 Nelson Pimentel and PO2 Reynaldo Gregorio, came to Cebu for the escapees.
Last Tuesday morning he went to Sitio Trigon and confirmed the escapees’ presence. He immediately sought the help of the Lapu-Lapu City Police.
He said Mahinay was charged with allegedly raping his 15-year old neighbor in San Isidro, Toboso town last June 2004 while Rosalito is facing a robbery charge.
Aranjuez alleged that before the escapees left their province, they robbed a delivery panel where its driver/salesman was killed. The suspects divided the loot and used it to travel out of the province.
Escapees who were arrested earlier pointed to Mahinay and Rosalito as the ones who killed the
driver/salesman.
Negros police is yet to file this additional robbery case against the escapees.
SWAT member Daño also lost his gold bracelet and failed to retrieve it when the commotion ensued at the quarry site. (OCP)
(September 23, 2004 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
