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Thursday, June 16, 2005
Torres admits 1 heist, but denies firing back
By Jovy S. Taghoy
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Arrested suspect Rey Torres denied engaging in a shootout with the seven-man team from the Cebu City Police Office.
Torres said he surrendered to the police and did not have a gun that would have allowed him to shoot it out with police operatives led by Supt. Pablo Labra II.
Torres, a suspected robbery gang leader, was arrested at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Police said he traded shots with SPO1s Adonis Dumpit and Milo Areola, part of the seven-man team that cornered him in a sari-sari store in Barangay Monte Alegre, Aurora, Zamboanga del Sur.
Torres suffered two gunshot wounds in the left leg. Police recovered a .45 pistol he allegedly used in the shootout.
‘Wasn’t me’
Torres, 35, arrived at 10:18 a.m. yesterday at the Mactan Cebu International Airport, aboard a private airplane owned by Sen. Sergio “Serge” Osmeña III.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, the senator’s brother, personally picked up Torres in Pagadian City and brought him to Cebu together with Labra’s team.
From the airport, an ambulance immediately transported Torres to the Cebu City Medical Center, with at least three cars from the Crime Suppression Unit and Special Weapons and Tactics police serving as escorts.
The ambulance arrived at the emergency room of CCMC at 11 a.m., where the entrance was also heavily guarded by elements of the Cebu City Police Office led by Supt. Melvin Gayotin, the acting police chief.
In a brief interview with reporters, Torres denied all the allegations hurled against him, from the robberies to the alleged shootout.
The only robbery he owned up to was the Sept. 15 incident, when he and Roldan Villanueva Rodriguez were arrested after grabbing P151,700 cash from the collector of an export company.
Torres particularly denied carrying out the robbery on East West Bank in Cebu City last Jan. 31 or trying to rescue his nephew, Jemar Mansalinog.
Mansalinog was killed in a hot pursuit operation with the policemen during that failed escape attempt.
“Dili na akong uban. Kato rang nadakpan ko (I have nothing to do with those other crimes. The only one I’m responsible for was the case that led to my arrest),” Torres said.
15 cases
Since 2004, at least 15 robberies have been blamed on Torres. He was also tagged as the gunman in the frustrated murder of a beauty shop manager last October.
Four warrants of arrest, three for robbery and one for frustrated murder, have been issued against Torres.
Torres said that after bailing his way out of the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center last Oct. 18, he went back home to Barangay Kauswagan, Tangub, Misamis Occidental and lived with his wife Editha and two children.
Torres said he returned to farming after leaving Cebu City.
Breakaway
He pointed to a breakaway group now led by Danny Limotan and Junard Saladaga as the ones behind a series of robberies in Metro Cebu, particularly Cebu City.
Torres claimed that prior to his first arrest last Sept. 15, he and Limotan had an argument that led to the group’s separation.
Only Rodriguez went with him, while the other members like Saladaga and Nardo Abapo sided with Limotan, said Torres.
Torres also said Limotan took his .45 pistol during their argument.
Torres’ wife, Editha, in an interview over dySS radio yesterday, claimed it was she who paid her husband’s bail and not suspected robbery gang leader Joel “Tongol” Nodalo, as police earlier reported.
Editha found it unfair that police easily brought up Torres’ name during the robberies, when her husband was in Tangub all the time.
She sarcastically said yesterday that her husband might again be identified as a suspect in last Tuesday’s robbery in Mandaue City, although he was already arrested by then.
Torres said he feared for his safety while being treated at the city hospital.
Except for a Swat team that guarded him at CCMC, no member of Torres’ family was around to attend to his needs.
Editha decided not to go with Torres yesterday because she still has to take care of her two children, who are attending school.
Torres said he was apprehensive that he would be summarily executed and that authorities would make it appear he tried to escape.
Torres said he was willing to face the charges filed against him.
Apart from the Swat operatives, Gayotin also assigned one stand-by Mobile Patrol Group car and a team of beat patrol policemen to secure the hospital. (JST)
(June 16, 2005 issue)
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