Saturday, May 31, 2008 2 suspects in Makati rob-slay nabbed
POLICE arrested two of the six suspects in rob-slay of a company messenger in Makati City last Thursday morning in a follow-up operation in Dasmarinas, Cavite less than 24 hours after the incident.
Southern Police District (SPD) director Luizo Ticman identified the suspects as Leo Saduran and Richard Gabriel who were positively identified by witnesses as among the group who robbed and killed 55-year-old Jaime Armando Cortez, a messenger of Eco Lazer Corporation.
The duo was apprehended in a follow-up operation conducted by the authorities Friday morning in Cavite.
Ticman said a witness positively point to one of the arrested suspects as the one who threw a punch at Cortez when he refused to give the money amounting to P130,000 he had earlier withdrawn from a Metro Bank branch in Barangay San Antonio this city.
But the official did not say who among Saduran and Gabriel did it to the victim.
One of the robbers shot the victim in the chest. Doctors at the Makati Medical Center (MMC) pronounced him dead on arrival.
For his part, Makati Police Chief Gilbert Corpuz said they are conducting background check on the arrested suspects to determine if they have pervious criminal record with the police.
Follow-up operations against the remaining suspects who fled the crime scene onboard three motorcycles were still being conducted by the Makati and SPD operatives.
Cruz meanwhile reiterated his appeal to all bank owners in the city to put up close circuit television (CCTV) outside the bank premises as one measure to secure clients against robbers and other criminal gangs.
Cruz said bank depositors should be given ample security not just inside the banks where they are making transactions but also after they have gone outside, when they are more vulnerable to criminal elements.
He said robbers targeting bank clients who have withdrawn large amount of cash would just wait for the victim to leave the bank and strike at them when they are well away from the bank's security personnel.
Last April 22, two women lost P800,000 cash to armed men who robbed them minutes after they withdrew the money from a Bank of the Philippine Island (BPI) branch in Ninoy Aquino Avenue in Parañaque City.
A week later, another group of robbers in motorcycles victimized a businessman and his secretary in Pasay City after withdrawing P195,000 and US$5,000 in payroll money from a Metro Bank branch in Diosdado Macapagal Avenue.
The unidentified men also shot and wounded victim Mervin Leo Fernandez when he tried to fight back. (AH/Sunnex)
