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Thursday, November 17, 2005
Bank robbed: 2 men caught
By Allan I. Varquez
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE Aspac Bank in Tabogon, Cebu was robbed at lunchtime yesterday by three men identified as remnants of the Danny Limotan robbery gang.
Two of them—Jose Roy Quemada, 33, said to be Limotan’s former right-hand man, and Quemada’s nephew Earl Allen Mondarte, 22—were caught at a checkpoint in neighboring San Remigio town in northern Cebu.
The suspects took P489,636.63 in cash and checks, but during their arrest, San Remigio policemen found only P20,900 cash in the pocket of Mondarte and checks worth P104,568.09 in the getaway car.
No firearms were seized from them.
At 12:10 p.m., bank manager Arlene Tolsedas locked the glass door of the bank so they could have their lunch. Three men, who were wearing polo shirts and denim pants, later knocked on the door. Tolsedas opened the door because the bank does not close for lunch, and she thought they were clients.
One of the men then grabbed her by the hair and poked a .45 pistol at her head while declaring a holdup. The other two men also pointed their handguns at security guard Larry Nuñeza and the cashier.
Backpack
Tolsedas and Nuñeza were made to lie face down, while two of the robbers took the cashier to the vault. Nuñeza was stripped of his .38 revolver.
The robbers seized the money inside the vault and stashed this in a backpack. They also grabbed the cash box from the cashier’s table.
They then fled aboard an Aura motorcycle.
Tabogon Police Chief Wilfredo Heducos said the suspects proceeded to the mountain barangay of Sambag, where a blue Toyota Corolla was waiting for them.
Somewhere along the way, Quemada dropped off their third companion who was carrying a backpack where they may have put most of their loot. Only Quemada and Mondarte were in the car when they were stopped at a checkpoint in Barangay Poblacion, San Remigio.
The Tabogon bank robbery was the second heist outside Cebu City this year. Last Aug. 2, the Land Bank of the Philippines branch in Bogo town lost P9.4 million.
Five of the 12 suspects in the Land Bank heist have been arrested, including the bank security guard and a former Army officer.
Disappointed
Police got lucky with yesterday’s robbery, but Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) Director Vicente Loot said he was disappointed with the attitude of Aspac bank because none of the employees went to the San Remigio police headquarters to identify the robbers.
Members of CPPO’s Special Operations Group were the ones who identified Quemada as a member of the Limotan robbery gang.
Limotan and his alleged cohort, Rey Torres, are detained at the Cebu City jail. They were caught earlier this year.
Tabogon police alerted their colleagues in San Remigio about the robbery yesterday.
“It could have been a good escape, but they were not lucky because our colleagues in San Remigio caught them through our information,” Tabogon Police Chief Heducos said in a phone interview.
San Remigio is about 16 kilometers away from Tabogon.
Cornered
People only learned that the bank was robbed when Nuñez ran outside asking for help in calling the police.
San Remigio Police Chief Laurel Almirante said they set up Oplan Universe after receiving the call from their colleagues in Tabogon that the robbers were in a blue Toyota Corolla.
He said he only saw two men inside the car, and as soon as the passenger got off, the driver sped away.
The San Remigio police gave chase while the other policemen accosted the passenger. The car was later cornered and the driver taken to the police station.
The car driver was identified as Quemada, while his passenger was his nephew Mondarte.
The two are currently detained at the San Remigio police precinct, pending the filing of a criminal case against them.
(November 17, 2005 issue)
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