Saturday, March 17, 2007 Cop kills ‘robber’ By Mia E. Abellana Sun.Star Staff Reporter With Linette C. Ramos
A ROBBER was killed, while his two companions escaped after they had a shootout with a policeman inside a beauty parlor Thursday night.
PO2 Antonio Quijano Din, 36, could not believe that the bullets barely touched him, while the robber, identified as Rico Lumantas, 57, was not as lucky.
Din was inside the Jonas Borces Beauty Studio in Sitio Tigbao, Barangay Talamban, Cebu City waiting for his turn to get a haircut.
At 9:30 p.m., two men entered the salon. One of them stayed near the door while the other approached the counter.
Suddenly, they pulled out .45 pistols and announced a holdup.
“Tulis ni! Hapa! Hapa (This is a robbery! Get down on the floor!)” Din recalled them as saying.
Around 35 people in the parlor dropped to the ground, including Din. The others managed to hide in the restroom.
Din slowly went for the gun tucked inside his waistband.
Before he could take it out, however, the one identified as Lumantas shot him, prompting him to crouch behind the salon’s sofa.
Din said he had no choice but to fire back because Lumantas kept shooting.
“Wa na man siya muhunong, nagsige na lang pud ko ug tira (He wouldn’t stop shooting at me, so I fired back),” he said.
Back-up
According to his estimates, Lumantas was only two meters away from him.
He noticed that he ran out of bullets when he saw Lumantas drop to the ground.
As he ran outside to reload, Lumantas’ companion also shot him, prompting him once again to take cover.
While outside, he saw Chief Insp. Rex Derilo of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group 7 pass by.
Din called his attention and asked for help.
The two policemen went around the vicinity but the two were nowhere to be found.
It turned out that Lumantas’ companion fled aboard a waiting motorcycle and took with him a Nokia N71 cellular phone, P1,000 and a pouch belonging to two customers.
When Din returned to the salon, Lumantas was already dead.
Owner Jonas Borces, in a radio interview, said he thought Din was dead because the robber had fired repeatedly at him. His bullet-riddled sofa could attest to this.
Reward, cars
He didn’t see Din running outside.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña announced City Hall is giving P50,000 cash as a reward to Din.
And because of the incident, Talamban and other mountain barangays will get vehicles from City Hall to increase police mobility in their areas.
In his news conference yesterday, Osmeña announced he will give mountain barangays the 10 vehicles the Bureau of Customs donated to the City Government last year.
Policemen were also sent to Barangays Buot Taup and Sinsin to check on reports that goons were seen in the area.
Borces’ parlor has been open for 11 years and last Thursday’s incident was its first robbery.
Borces was one of those who managed to hide in the restroom.
Recovered from Lumantas’ possession was an identification card showing he was a member of the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu) and the Military Intelligence Group (MIG) in Zamboanga del Sur.
He also had photocopies of a list of other Cafgu members.
Target
A member of the MIG went to the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) yesterday to verify if Lumantas was indeed a member of the MIG 9.
Police said they never heard of Lumantas before.
They will check if Lumantas was involved in the robbery of a cooperative in the same barangay earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the CCPO will recommend to the Police Regional Office 7 to award Din with a medal and possibly a spot promotion for his efforts.
Acting CCPO Director Patrocinio Comendador also brought up the matter during the Police Coordinating and Advisory Council meeting yesterday. He said the City Council might pass a resolution commending Din.
Comendador, in a news conference, told reporters the incident showed that the police are trying to build a positive image.
To motivate his men, he awards those who are able to solve cases with commendations every Monday.
“We are confident that Cebu City policemen can handle firearms because they practice. When they fire, they hit the target,” Comendador said. (MEA/LCR)
