Thursday, August 30, 2007 Meloy owns up robberies in Bohol, not Cebu heists By Rianne C. Tecson Of Sun.Star Cebu
SUSPECTED robbery group leader Casimero “Meloy” Garcia said he never masterminded any of the recent robberies in Cebu.
What he owned up to were at least six robberies staged in a span of eight months in Tagbilaran City and various parts of Bohol Province, the latest being Tuesday’s bloody robbery of the Bank of Commerce.
Garcia, 24, said he left Cebu in 2006 yet and was either in Bohol or in some parts of Mindanao when the robberies, which the Casimero Garcia Robbery Group was allegedly responsible for, were made.
He is willing to be brought to Cebu to be presented before witnesses.
In an interview aired over radio dySS, which hooked up with Tagbilaran City-based radio dyTR, Garcia said he used to work in a steel factory in Barangay Cambaro, Mandaue City for six months, before he stopped reporting for work.
He hasn’t been back since.
Garcia said that when he returned to his hometown in Barangay Magsaysay, Talibon town in Bohol, he went back to farming. Not involved
When the P2.7-million La Nueva Supermart robbery was staged last Aug. 13, Garcia said he was in Mindanao, shuttling between Cagayan de Oro City and Kibawe, Bukidnon.
Garcia also said he didn’t have anything to do with the Aug. 21 robbery of the Peninsula Rural Bank Inc. in Mandaue City, where robbers fled with some P2.5 million.
He admitted he went into hiding after learning that his name was being linked to the robberies in Cebu.
From Bukidnon, Garcia said he went to Cagayan de Oro City before going back to Tagbilaran.
“I really don’t have an idea why I’m being tagged as the mastermind,” Garcia said
He also denied knowing former La Nueva security guard Danilo Flores, who not only tipped robbers of how the money from the establishment was transferred but also took part in the heist.
But he admitted knowing Cresencio “Bruts” Reguya, allegedly a member of the robbery group, because the latter also hails from Barangay Magsaysay.
One more member of the robbery group, Gilven Nuez, is also from the same area.
Bohol robberies
In the same radio interview, Garcia admitted participating in the Dec. 28, 2006 robbery of Unitop-Tagbilaran City branch, where they ran away with at least half a million pesos.
He said his group was also responsible for the robberies of a gasoline station in Talibon last July and of the Bank of Commerce last Tuesday.
Garcia also said Tuesday’s robbery that ended in a shootout was the first time he collaborated with Reguya and that they did the planning in Tagbilaran City.
Tagbilaran City Police Chief Jacinto Cesar, however, said in an interview over radio dyLA that Garcia admitted to at least six robberies, mostly pulled off in Tagbilaran City.
Cesar said that aside from the two incidents that Garcia has admitted, the Casimero Garcia Robbery Group was also responsible for the robberies on Borja Clinic (Aug. 11); First Consolidated Bank (January); Island City Mall (March 8); Talibon gasoline station (July); and a businessman in Trinidad, Bohol.
The police official said they are still hunting for two more members of the group. He identified them as Arsenio Polo and Al Fuentes.
More cohorts
Cesar also said that during tactical investigation following Reguya’s arrest, he mentioned two other cohorts— Roy Fernandez from Mindanao and Albert Almedilla of San Miguel, Bohol.
Cesar, however, said they have yet to prove their involvement in the Aug. 28 robbery.
Reguya, 27, was arrested after he took seven bullets during the shootout and had to be taken to a hospital.
Cesar said they are preparing robbery with homicide charges against Garcia, Reguya and Nuez, 19.
Police, however, have yet to determine whether to include Garcia’s cousin and getaway vehicle driver Sofronio Remoreras, and his 17-year-old girlfriend in the charges.
The three, together with Garcia’s girlfriend, were arrested in a resort in Panglao hours after the Bank of Commerce robbery.
Cesar said they could not completely link Remoreras yet to the robbery while the girl has been turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Tagbilaran City Mayor Dan Lim, however, said in a separate interview that it is too much of a coincidence for Remoreras to be identified as the one who always drives the getaway vehicle used in robberies pulled off by the Garcia group.
Lim also said he prefers to include the girl in the filing of charges to teach her a lesson.
