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Friday, May 06, 2005
P13-14M, not P3M, lost in Tagum heist
By Joy G. Romares
DAVAO CITY -- The chief of the Tagum City Police Office said Thursday P13 to 14 million was the total amount of money carted away by a security guard who held up an armored van in Tagum City, Tuesday afternoon.
Senior Superintendent Pythagoras Cervantes, Tagum City police chief, in a phone interview, also denied saying security guard Mario Soriano was already arrested on Wednesday contrary to a Sun.Star report.
Cervantes said they are still conducting a manhunt operation against Soriano and his cohorts.
Cervantes, when interviewed on Wednesday, claimed he still does not have the full details of the arrest as he was still in a meeting on peace and order, but confirmed Soriano was already arrested.
"Ma-consider na nga sulbad na. To be filed na ang kaso against the suspects kay nadakpan na ang guard nga nanion (The -case is considered solved and it just has to be filed in court since the suspects, including the guard who pointed the gun at his van companions, has been arrested)," Cervantes said in a telephone interview with another reporter the Thursday.
Cervantes, in a personal interview Thursday, however, denied having said and added that what he must have meant was that the driver is already in police custody and the getaway car, a Kia, is impounded at the Tagum City Police Office.
Cervantes added that they are still conducting further investigation to ascertain if Samsom Canonigo (driver of the Kia that was intercepted in Carmen, Davao del Norte) is indeed a member of the robbery group.
"Dili pa namo maingon kung apil ba gyud siya (Canonigo) o gi-commandeer lang siya sa mga suspects, gina-imbestigahan pa namo ni (We still cannot say whether Canonigo is the suspects' commander, we are still conducting further investigations)," Cervantes said.
Soriano, a security guard of the Big Brother Security Agency assigned at the Allied Bank in Tagum City, along with two other security guards, a bank teller and the bank manager of the Allied Bank were onboard the armored van in Barangay Canocotan from the NCCC Mall in Tagum City at around 3 p.m., when Soriano declared a hold-up and ordered his fellow guard, identified only as Halayhay, to disarm the other guard.
He then handcuffed the manager before demanding the van driver, identified only as Borja, to stop the vehicle.
Soriano then jumped off the van with a bag said to contain P13-14 million and boarded a Kia car with three unidentified men on board.
Borja admitted having noticed the car following the van since they left the NCCC mall but that he did not give this much attention.
Police then alerted its troops to be on the lookout for the getaway car and intercepted it in Carmen, Davao del Norte but with only the driver, identified as one Samson Canonigo, was inside.
The driver readily gave the information that Soriano and his companions headed for Sto. Tomas and boarded the bus there en route to Davao City.
(May 6, 2005 issue)
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