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Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Sumabong tags Tining as brains
By Mia E. Abellana
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Suspected robbery gang leader Joel Sumabong surrendered to the police yesterday afternoon, nearly six months after allegedly running away with P9.4 million from the Land Bank of the Philippines branch in Bogo, Cebu.
Sumabong, 32, pointed to Bogo Mayor Celestino “Tining” Martinez III as the one behind the robbery, an allegation the mayor again denied.
Sumabong also implicated an active policeman and an asset of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7.
Sun.Star Cebu is withholding the names of the police and the asset until they can give their side.
NBI Regional Director Medardo de Lemos, however, said the agency no longer has civilian assets.
“I was still with the Bicol office when Director (Reynaldo) Wycoco ordered the cancellation of all civilian agent appointments nationwide,” de Lemos, a lawyer, said.
Sumabong said he did not receive a centavo from the loot. He identified a Boy Tagalog as the leader who brought the money to the Martinez farm in Barangay Buwak in the northern town of Bogo.
The Provincial Intelligence and Investigation Branch (PIIB) and the Special Reaction Unit left the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) headquarters in Lahug, Cebu City past 9 a.m. yesterday, but it was not until 12:45 p.m. that they got their hands on Sumabong.
The team waited for their guide somewhere along the highway in Liloan town before they were told to transfer to a department store in Mandaue City.
Later, they received a call to proceed to the Barangay Tintay market where they picked up their guide.
Fellow accused Dindo Ancero led police and reporters to Barangay Agsungot, Cebu City where he and PIIB Chief Juanito Enguerra met Sumabong lurking behind the shrubs.
Because Sumabong implicated Martinez in the robbery, CPPO Director Vicente Loot is inhibiting himself and his office from further investigating him. (See related story)
Police Regional Office 7 Director Eduardo Gador ordered the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division to take over the case.
Sumabong was presented to PNP Chief Arturo Lomibao yesterday during the PNP 15th anniversary celebration.
Loot said that after Sumabong sent video compact discs to media outlets last month, he sent surrender feelers through Ancero.
It was Ancero who reportedly contacted the police and arranged for Sumabong’s surrender.
Sumabong had intended to raise P200,000 so he could post bail before turning himself in, but changed his mind and arranged for his surrender yesterday.
He said that he only raised P40,000.
Sumabong told reporters that it was the late Felix Cuerda who told him that Mayor Martinez wanted them to plan a robbery.
He said Cuerda, a former policeman in the town, was the one family ran to when they needed someone killed.
Cuerda was shot dead in late 2004.
I decided to surrender because I do not want to suffer the same fate of my former colleagues in the mayor’s squad.
They were killed because of what they knew, Sumabong said in Cebuano.
Police initially considered a drug-related angle in Cuerda’s killing, pointing out that he was arrested for drug possession in March 2001.
Sumabong alleged that the robbery was planned in 2003 yet, with Cuerda, the policeman and the asset. The money was supposed to be used in the 2004 elections but he did not agree, so the heist was not carried out, he said.
He was surprised when he was picked up last Aug. 1 and briefed on that day that they were going to rob Land Bank that night.
After the robbery, he said he and some members proceeded to the human settlements building (Department of Public Works and Highways) in Bogo while Tagalog brought the money.
Asked if the mayor himself told him to rob the bank, he said it was only Felix who said it was Mayor Martinez’s order.
However, he said Martinez sent him text messages after the heist telling him that if he needed anything, he was to ask the chief security officer.
Former CPPO director Drusillo Bolodo and NBI 7 Director De Lemos announced the filing of robbery charges against 12 men last Aug. 11.
They arrested Land Bank security guard Henry Cuerda, son of Felix, and retired army man Joseph “Jojo” Ancajas.
Also named in the complaint were Sumabong, Ancero and Ceferino Serbano, who owned the getaway vehicles.
Later, investigators included Efren Biladas and Isagani Chico in the charge after they were allegedly identified by witnesses.
Although Sumabong said he had little to do with the robbery because he was a mere lookout, he admitted to being part of plots to assassinate political enemies of Martinez.
Aside from the plot to kill Senior Supt. Loot and his wife Daanbantayan Mayor Ma. Luisa Loot, Sumabong said they were also ordered to hit a former mayor in Leyte.
He also believes Martinez’s parents, Celestino “Junie” Jr. and Rep. Clavel Asas-Martinez (Cebu, fourth district), were unaware of their son’s activities.
He cited a text message allegedly from Tining telling him to postpone the plan to kill the couple until his parents left Cebu so that they will not be blamed.
Sumabong said he was hurt that Martinez denied knowing him and the other members of the mayor’s Squad and later ordered the police to hunt him down.
He claimed receiving P10,000 a month plus allowances for his services. (With KNR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 7, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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