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Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Police nab Cebu's most wanted fugitive
By Al Jacinto
POLICE have captured one of Cebu's most wanted fugitives Tuesday in the southern province of Zamboanga del Sur, where he was sighted by joint Cebu and provincial policemen, a top porivincial police officer said.
Officials identified the suspect as Rey Ruel Torres, who was wounded and captured after he resisted arrest and fought it out with members of the Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Bureau (CIIB) led by Superintendent Pablo Labra, leader of the seven-man Cebu CIIB team, in the town of Ramon Magsaysay, Zamboanga del Sur, at around 11 a.m.
Combined police forces swooped down on the village of Montealegre, where Torres was hiding.
The 36-year-old former police who turned robbery-gang leader, and tagged as Cebu's most wanted, was rushed to a hospital in Pagadian City, in Zamboanga del Sur, for treatment of his wound.
"Torres refused to surrender peacefully and opened fire on the cops, triggering a running gun battle until he was hit in the left thigh and was captured. His bad days are over now," said Zamboanga del Sur police chief Superintendent Karib Muamil.
He said police forces were still investigating whether Torres was involved in the spate of highway robberies in Zamboanga del Sur. "We are still investigating whether he had anything to do with the local robbery incidents," Muamil said.
Muamil said police forces from Cebu and Zamboanga del Sur tracked down Torres after a long surveillance operation. He did not say if Torres was alone or not when he opened fire on the policemen.
Police in Cebu province tagged Torres' group in last month's robbery of the Hi-Precision Diagnostics Medical Center in Cebu City. Torres and three other men barged into the clinic, held several patients and hit a woman with a gun after she refused to give her money.
Torres was also implicated in the series of bank robberies in Cebu province, the latest was in April, this year, when his group carted almost one million pesos from Penbank personnel in Talisay City.
He was also linked to the half-a-million peso robbery in January of EastWest Bank in Cebu City and dozens smaller attacks on traders.
(June 15, 2005 issue)
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