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Sunday, June 19, 2005
Designer pins robbery on Cebu's most wanted
By Jovy S. Taghoy
CEBU CITY -- Six months after getting shot in a robbery, Cebuano couturier Jed Sevilla Saturday came face to face with Rey Torres, the suspected robbery gang leader.
Upon seeing the man, Sevilla at first failed to say a word. Later, he explained his ordeal came rushing back to him at that moment.
"I recalled my ordeal. Mixed akong emotions. Nagkamang na ko, gitiwasan pa ko nimo (I was already crawling, yet who still tried to finish me off)," Sevilla said, when he finally managed to approach Torres on his hospital bed.
"Wala man ko'y sala. Wala gyud ka'y kalooy (I did nothing wrong to you. You were merciless)," he said.
Escorted by Superintendent Pablo Labra II, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau, Sevilla went to the Cebu City Medical Center at 3 p.m. Saturday and confronted Torres.
Sevilla earlier identified Torres through the police rogues' gallery. He was the third victim to identify Torres since the suspect was arrested last Tuesday.
Sevilla survived four gunshot wounds in the head, left shoulder and both thighs. Two motorcycle-riding robbers, later said to be led by Torres, preyed on him last Dec. 18, exactly six months ago Saturday.
Sevilla and a cousin were in his white Nissan Frontier and had stopped for a red light at the corner of V. Rama Ave. and B. Rodriguez St. in Barangay Calamba, when the robbers struck.
He lost a cellular phone worth P20,000 and P2,500 cash.
Sevilla told Torres Saturday that he was hospitalized for nine days and underwent an operation. He needed months of treatment to recover from the trauma.
Sevilla told Sun.Star Cebu that while "forgiveness is part of the healing process, Torres has to pay for the crime he committed."
Sevilla said he will be filing an appropriate charge against Torres, probably frustrated homicide.
The robbery victim said when he saw Torres in his hospital bed, he did not feel anger, but pity, for the arrested suspect.
"Because he is now experiencing the pain that I felt when I got shot. God has his own way of punishing bad people," said Sevilla.
Torres suffered two gunshot wounds in the left leg when he allegedly tried to fire at Senior Police Officers 1 Adonis Dumpit and Milo Areola.
Dumpit and Areola were part of the seven-man team from the Cebu City Police Office, led by Labra, that arrested Torres in Aurora town, Zamboanga del Sur last Tuesday.
Except for the Sept. 15 robbery of a collector of an export firm, Torres denied at least 14 robberies, including Sevilla's case, that were pinned on him. (Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(June 19, 2005 issue)
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