Tuesday, September 30, 2008
NBI 7 team arrests 2 of 5 suspects in pawnshop employees’ robbery
MONTHS after the trail went cold, operatives arrested Friday two of the five men believed to have carried out that daring daylight hit on a van carrying pawnshop workers transporting jewelry pieces along the Marcelo B. Fernan bridge.
Agents from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 in Cebu and elements from its district office in Bohol caught Robert Durano, also known as Albert Durano and Jomar Pepito, and Reynaldo Villas, also known as Rey, trying to pawn some of the loot in Tagbilaran City.
“We will be filing charges of highway robbery against them,” said lawyer Ernesto Macabare, the NBI 7 executive officer and head agent. “The agent on case is finalizing the documentation,” he added.
Villas has a standing conviction for robbery in Bacolod City.
Five men, armed with what appeared to be m16 rifles and wearing some camouflage jackets and police uniforms, carried out the heist last March 13 and walked away with four bags of jewelry, with an estimated worth exceeding a million.
According to witnesses, the attack on the unmarked Cebuana Lhuillier Toyota Revo took no more than two minutes and without any shots being fired in the Lapu-Lapu City side of the bridge. A police follow-up operation resulted in the recovery of four empty jewelry bags in Sibonga town.
The NBI stepped in days later upon the request of the Cebuana Lhuillier Pawnshop management.
“The investigation on the case progressed slowly but there were developments from time to time,” Macabare said.
Among the developments Macabare referred to were the surfacing of the names Robert Durano, Jomar Pepito and Alberto Durano in the records of different pawnshops in Tagbilaran City.
The three names were linked to the pawning of 27 different pieces of jewelry from May 27 to Sept. 3 this year.
“That is a lot of jewelry,” Macabare said.
And when the pawned jewelry pieces were examined, they were determined to be among the sets that were lost as a result of the March 13 heist.
NBI Agent Rey Villordon, the agent assigned to the case, said background checks were then conducted and it was determined that Robert Durano, Jomar Pepito and Albert Durano were one and the same person.
Durano, who originally hails from Bulacao, Pardo, Cebu City, was then placed under surveillance.
And when he seen scouring pawnshops in Barangay Cogon, Tagbilaran City, agents were already in Bohol.
Durano, who was with Villas at that time, was arrested in the act of pawning a piece of jewelry. When the item was inspected, it also matched one of those that were lost in the Lapu-Lapu City heist.
The jewelry lost in the robbery came from Davao City and were to be deposited at the Cebuana Lhuillier regional office in Cebu City.
They were brought to Cebu City via an airline flight and came escorted by four employees who were met at the airport by a security guard and a driver.
But as their vehicle neared the curve of the bridge, a dark blue car with license plate WEZ 717 overtook them and blocked their path.
Five men then went down, walked towards their vehicle with guns drawn and ordered them to disembark.
Security guard Eutemio Estoce said two of the robbers wore police uniforms while the three had military camouflage attires.
Two of the robbers stood at each side of the car, pointing their guns at them, while the fifth man stood in front of their vehicle.
Driver Jundel Suma-linog was kicked by one of the robbers when he refused to leave the vehicle.
All six passengers—the four employees, Entoce and Sumalinog— were then ordered to lie flat on their face while the robbers took the loot. (KNR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (September 30, 2008 issue)
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