Saturday, August 30, 2008 Police identify robbers in Makati shootout
POLICE said the suspected bank robbers who engaged policemen in a running gunbattle in Makati City last Thursday could be remnants of the notorious Kuratong Baleleng or Ampang-Colangco Group.
"From what we have gathered so far, the robbers we encountered last Thursday were from a group in Ozamis. Their modus operandi is to send a surveillance team in Metro Manila to look for targets such as banks to hit. Then they would send another group to do the actual robbery," said National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Director Geary Barias during Friday’s press conference at Makati Police Station.
Barias said the robbers could be remnants of the notorious Kuratong Baleleng or Ampang-Colangco Group, which operates in Ozamis City in Misamis Occidental Province.
He added that Ampang-Colangco was the same group that staged the P2.7-million payroll heist at Buendia Avenue also in Makati last June. The gang also conducted operations in Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog, including an armored robbery in Cainta on April 20.
Police have so far arrested 13 members of the robbery gang.
According to Barias, the slain robber, who was initially identified as Noel Compoc from a press ID of the Cagayan De Oro-based Golden Star Publishing found in his possession that later turned out to be fake, belonged to either of the two groups of "players" that left Ozamis City via Cebu on August 19 and 23 to carry out robberies in the metropolis.
"This is a good break for us because we have identified the group they belonged to. And whether they could be former military men or police, we're still trying to find out," he said.
Compoc’s real identity was revealed by the NCRPO chief to be Jimmy Espina alias Bulldog.
The Golden Star Publishing Company has disowned the suspect and told the police that the press card was tampered.
Barias said the cellular phone found from Espina contained messages tying them to the same group of robbers who took P2.7 million in payroll money from the employees of Macro Philippines, Inc. during an armed robbery on June 17.
The victims had just withdrawn the amount from a Metrobank branch in Dian Street, Barangay Palanan in Makati when they were ambushed by the armed men.
The motorcycle-riding robbers, however, encountered a police patrol car along Buendia Avenue near the corner of Pasong Tamo Street and a shootout ensued.
The two robbers – one of whom was found in possession of an Air Philippine plane ticke to Misamis Oriental - were killed during the incident.
At the press conference, Barias and Makati Police Chief Gilbert Cruz also presented to the media three M-16 Armalite rifles and an M-203 grenade launcher which belonged to the cache of firearms recovered from a Tamarraw FX van abandoned by the fleeing robbers during the shootout with policemen.
Two of the Armalite rifles were traced to Mishem Security Agency Services Inc. in Makati and Safeguard Armor Security Corp. in Singalong, Manila. The serial numbers of the firearms, however, were tampered.
"The serial numbers of these rifles were registered to pistols and revolvers, so these were obviously tampered," Barias said.
Aside from Espina, also killed during last Thursday’s shootout was policeman Warren Balang of the Makati police’s Mobile Patrol Unit who sustained a gunshot wound in the chest.
The robbers, on board a heavily tinted Tamarraw FX van, were about to victimize the United Coconut Planter’s Bank branch along Makati Avenue when the patrolling policemen noticed them.
Balang tried to accost the robbers, but he was shot that eventually resulted in a running gunbattle. (AH/Sunnex)
