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Friday, November 18, 2005
Cops arrest accounting grad for Aspac bank robbery
By Mia A. Abellana
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
BEFORE he allegedly masterminded bank robberies in the Visayas and Mindanao, Jose Roy Quimada worked in a bank.
Quimada, 34, finished his accounting course at the University of San Carlos in Cebu City and then went on to work for Far East Bank as an accounting officer.
In 2001, Quimada left the Far East Bank after he was allegedly charged with estafa.
Provincial Special Operations Group Chief Juanito Enguerra said Quimada allegedly forged the signatures of the bank’s depositors and ran off with close to P2 million.
Regional Trial Court Judge Renerio Ramas of the Pagadian City Branch 18 issued an arrest warrant for Quimada, and set bail at P60,000.
Supt. Pablo Labra II said Quimada’s name always came out in their investigation of robberies pulled by the Rey Torres and Danny Limotan gang in Cebu City, but the police found it difficult to pin him down because he never participated in the heists.
Swimming
The Cebu Business Hotel also identified him as the one who left the hotel without paying his P8,000 bill.
Quimada is also accused of robbing a cell phone shop in Dumaguete City last Sept. 25.
Interviewed by Superbalita reporter Dennes Tabar at the San Remigio Police Station last Wednesday, Quimada denied he and Earl Allen Mondarte, 22, had anything to do with the Aspac robbery. (See related story)
Quimada said he is a businessman who sells lumber and property. He went to Carmen and Tabogon to check properties foreclosed by Aspac.
Asked what he was doing in San Remigio, Quimada replied that he and Mondarte decided to go swimming.
Police said the cashbox found in his possession was evidence that he took part in the crime.
However, Quimada told Tabar that as he was driving, he followed a motorcycle that dropped a bag on the road.
Blames uncle
He picked up the bag, but decided to open it later. He said he did not know what was inside it.
For his part, Mondarte said the cash found in his pocket came from Quimada, who is his uncle.
He said that he was waiting in a store in Bogo town and that the storekeeper could attest to this.
When he boarded the car, Mondarte said Quimada handed him the cash and told him to keep it.
Zamboanga del Sur Provincial Board Member Ernesto Mondarte confirmed that Earl Allen is his son. He told Sun.Star Cebu that he could not believe he was dragged into the robbery.
Quimada and Earl Allen were arrested at a checkpoint in San Remigio town last Wednesday afternoon.
Found in their possession were Aspac’s cashbox containing 29 checks and more than P29,000 cash.
(November 18, 2005 issue)
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