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Sunday, September 25, 2005
Rob suspect denies linking Bogo mayor
By Mia E. Abellana and Minerva B. Gerodias
CEBU CITY -- The Land Bank robbery in Bogo, Cebu has become a war of words between local officials and the suspect.
Robbery suspect Dindo Ancero said he did not retract any statement linking Bogo Mayor Celestino "Tining" Martinez III to the P9.4-million bank robbery.
He never implicated the mayor at all.
At the Capitol, Governor Gwendolyn Garcia dared Martinez and all the suspects to take a lie detector test.
"If you are innocent, you have nothing to fear. Pagpa-lie detector test mong tanan (You should all take a lie detector test). Everybody involved, including Mayor Tining, because I'm sure, if he (Martinez) is very confident of his innocence, he will know that he will pass a lie detector test," Garcia told reporters Saturday.
Martinez has expressed willingness to submit himself to an investigation to clear his name.
Acting Cebu Provincial Police Director Vicente Loot offered to take the test too. "It's no problem with me," he said Saturday.
As for Ancero, who was arrested along with two other suspects in Masbate last Tuesday, he said that the reporters who first talked to him Friday morning may have misunderstood or changed what he meant.
Poll worker
Although he maintained that he was hired by the Martinez camp to work for them in the last elections, Ancero said he never pointed to Martinez as the mastermind or financier of the robbery.
Ancero made this clarification when a Sun.Star Cebu team paid him a visit in his detention cell at the Lapu-Lapu City Police Station, where they were taken after being transferred from Bogo town.
Ancero stood by his claim that he was a hired goon and that Martinez's chief security officer Cristituto Yee took care of the robbery group's meals while they were at the Department of Public Works and Highways building in the town a month before the Aug. 2 robbery.
Ancero said that because the meals cost up to P18,000, he did not believe Yee had the money to pay for it and suspected the mayor knew of the plan.
"Anha ra sa pagkaon. Wala ko mitumbok bahin sa tulis (I only know of the food arrangement. I did not link Martinez to the robbery)," Ancero said.
He also said he no longer wanted to issue statements because he was advised by his lawyer Salvador Solima.
Wore a wig
Ancero, Isagani Chico and Felix Albores (not Aborres as earlier reported) were arrested Tuesday morning in Cawayan, Masbate.
Although Ancero claimed that Chico and Albores were not part of the robbery, Chief Inspector Juanito Enguerra of the Provincial Special Operations Group said a bank employee and a witness who happened to be outside the bank at the time of the heist identified him as one of the robbers.
Enguerra said Chico was identified as the one who wore a wig inside the bank.
Chico said, though, that witnesses could prove that he was in Bantayan at the time of the robbery working as a plumber and electrician.
Enguerra said Albores was not identified, but he may not be off the hook yet.
Their counterparts in Oriental Negros faxed them a copy of an arrest warrant for Albores, who is wanted for murder. The warrant was served on Albores yesterday afternoon.
Inhibit
Judge Mario Trinidad of the Regional Trial Court Branch 64 issued the warrant against Albores last Oct 11, 2004.
For his part, Supt. Loot is willing to inhibit himself from the investigation.
Before he does that, though, he needs to ask for permission from Police Regional Office 7 Director Eduardo Gador, saying he was duty-bound to serve the arrest warrants issued against the robbery suspects.
He said blaming politics was "overused."
Martinez, in a press conference last Friday, expressed suspicion that the twist in the robbery is politically motivated. He was also concerned with Loot being involved in the investigation.
Governor Garcia had requested for Loot to be the acting Cebu provincial police chief.
Loot is the husband of Daanbantayan Mayor Ma. Luisa Loot, an ally of the Garcias. Martinez's father, Celestino Jr., lost to Garcia in the gubernatorial race in 2004.
No goons
But Loot said it was not his fault that Ancero chose to reveal what he said to the media and that he did not order Ancero to implicate the mayor.
"In fact, it was the National Bureau of Investigation that filed the case against Ancero that led to the release of an arrest warrant," he said.
Martinez earlier said he is gathering his own information about the case before he decides to go to the NBI 7.
In an interview yesterday, Martinez said he is giving Loot the benefit of the doubt because he did not directly blame him for the turn of events.
Even if Ancero clarified he (Martinez) was not part of the robbery, Martinez said he was still unhappy about the accusation that his family employed goons in the last elections.
Martinez said he does not know Ancero, alleged gang leader Joel Sumabong and van owner Ceferino Serbano.
(September 25, 2005 issue)
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