|
Saturday, November 30, 2002
Metrobank robbed; ex-mayor, pal held
By Minerva B. Gerodias and Mia E. Abellana
CEBU -- Police picked up a former town mayor from Surigao del Norte and his companion for questioning an hour after a Metrobank branch was robbed Friday morning, which sits less than three blocks from a police precinct in Mabolo, Cebu City.
Theft and Robbery Section (TRS) investigators stressed, however, that former mayor Rodolfo Pinat, 52, of Tubuhon, Dinagat Island, Surigao del Norte and his companion are not yet suspects.
Pinat and Arturo Namanas, 45, of Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, were picked up in a carenderia on Gochan St., Mabolo after police received calls about “suspicious-looking” persons in the area. The two men’s relatives decried the handcuffing.
At least five men armed with Baby Armalites, robbed the bank around 10:30 a.m. Friday, taking about P120,000 from a teller, going by the initial count. Two wore cloth masks. Some P400,000 in bills was also on a table covered with a newspaper but it wasn’t noticed by the robbers.
(Cebu City Police Office Director Josephus Angan said the police are going after six men, but all the witnesses counted only five robbers.)
It was the fourth robbery involving a bank in Cebu so far this year, and the second against Metrobank. The entire operation lasted about two minutes.
Only three entered the bank after disarming two guards stationed outside, while two other lookouts waited inside a blue Ford Telstar.
One of the guards got hit on his shoulder by the butt of an Armalite, for failing to drop to the ground right away.
Within the hour, police found the guards’ firearms inside the car, abandoned in a deserted street in Villa Aurora, Kasambagan.
Despite a recent conflict between local police and the heavily armed entourage of Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Sr., Mayor Tomas Osmeña is sure syndicates from Ozamiz had nothing to do with yesterday’s heist.
Angan said he will look into why the Mabolo Police Station was not able to detect any sign of the robbery as the station is only walking distance from the bank and that such establishments should be a priority concern.
Disarmed
Metrobank security guard Dindo Paglalunan said the first man to arrive looked like a normal client, so he let the man in without any hassle.
Immediately, two other masked men followed, brandishing Armalite rifles and ordering the gaurds, clients and bank personnel to drop to the floor.
“Dapa, dapa!” they instructed and one of them immediately pointed a firearm at Paglalunan and another security guard Manuel Boyles. (Down, down!)
Two security guards detailed outside the bank were disarmed.
Roberto Malaran lost his .38 revolver while Ostero Herculano surrendered his shotgun.
Herculano got hit on his shoulder by the butt of an Armalite, for failing to drop to the ground right away.
Bank client Jun Cheng told reporters that the two others immediately climbed on the countertop and began collecting what they could from the teller’s booth being manned by Alwin Go.
Cheng also said that the robbers failed to look into the bank’s open vault as they quickly boarded a waiting car.
Another client was relieved after they failed to see the P400,000 she had just withdrawn from the bank wrapped in a newspaper.
Cheng said one of the suspects was a bit stout and was wearing shorts. Other witnesses said the person was wearing a white shirt.
As of press time, police still had no suspects, even as they held Pinat and Namanas for questioning.
Residents of Gochan St., Mabolo were alarmed yesterday morning as several policemen with high-powered firearms surrounded their place to pick up suspicious-looking men.
The operation was in relation to the Metrobank robbery.
People staying in the crowded residential area rushed outside their houses, most of them clutching their small children as the policemen penetrated the place.
Police immediately picked up Pinat and Namanas, a lumber agent who works for one Ruben Tiu.
The two were eating lunch in the carenderia of Pablita Borigon. A concerned citizen called the police hotline to report that there were two suspicious-looking men eating in the area.
Pinat and Namanas were immediately brought to the Theft and Robbery Section (TRS) and they were questioned for at least six hours.
No knowledge
But in an interview, Namanas, a native of Awpa-gan, Butuan City but is now residing on Cabreros St., Basak, denied any knowledge of the robbery.
Namanas said he has been living in Cebu City for six years and his means of livelihood is dealing lumber to different construction stores.
“We were just picked up. I didn’t even get to drink water,” said Namanas, who was handcuffed immediately after the police got hold of him.
He and Pinat met at Tiu’s house to talk about their lumber business. Shortly after 11 a.m., they went to Borigon’s carenderia, just a few meters from Tiu’s residence, to eat lunch.
Namanas said they heard the people around talking about the robbery but they did not mind them. They were just shocked when the police arrived and picked them up.
Pinat, for his part, explained that he is in Cebu to start a logging business with Tiu.
Although Pinat admitted he was in the same bank that morning to make a deposit, he said he was already in his jeep heading for Tiu’s house when the robbers struck.
The getaway vehicle was recovered along President Quezon St., Villa Aurora, Kasambagan. The blue Ford Telstar (PDY-362) was abandoned in a deserted area so nobody saw what vehicle the robbers used in fleeing.
The police were able to trace the owner of the car, one Camilo Montesclaros of Sambag I.
SPO1 Venancio Abella of TRS said the buyer’s name in the deed of sale is Boyno Reyes and it was sold for P43,000 last Nov. 22.
The owner of the car went to TRS Friday and said Pinat and Namanas were not the ones who bought it.
Paglunan, the bank guard, also said he did not see the two during the robbery.
The Scene of the Crime Operations (Soco) recovered two black cloth masks from the driver’s seat, Herculano’s shotgun in between the driver and front passenger seats, Malaran’s .38 revolver and a bottle of mineral water.
Same pattern
Cebu City Police Director Angan said they could not yet conclude as to who were responsible for the heist but admitted that it had the same pattern as the past robberies.
The first robbery this year was last April when armed men carted away P2 million from Rural Bank of Subang-daku’s staff car that was about to leave the White Gold Club at the North Reclamation Area.
In June, five men in connivance with a security guard robbed Metrobank F. Ramos branch and fled with P500,000.
About a month after, a security guard died when China Bank in SM City mall was robbed of around P133,000 in loose change and small bills.
Angan, however, dismissed the arrival of Ozamiz City Mayor Parojinog exactly a week ago as having a connection with the robbery.
All units of the Cebu City police went into a frenzy when reports of 16 heavily armed men arrived onboard a passenger ferry from Ozamiz. The party turned out to be Parojinog and his staff, with four policemen armed with Armalite rifles.
Angan said they have no basis to link Parojinog’s presence to the recent robbery.
He also could not say if it was the Kuratong Baleleng gang or breakaway members of the group who pulled off the heist. With Charmaine Y. Rodriguez/Sun.Star Cebu |
|
|
|
 |
| click
to comment on this article or discuss it with other readers |
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
