TWO MEN were arrested for allegedly stealing cash and jewelry amounting to more than
P700,000 from a house in Barangay Pajac, Lapu-Lapu City last Wednesday.
One of the suspects was a brother of victim Divina Montebon Briones, 31, while the other was reportedly her former boyfriend. The police are still searching for the third suspect.
Police investigation revealed that Jerome Briones, 18, Rodel Apduhan, 28, and another suspect identified only as “Dagul” carted away P20,000 cash and assorted jewelry items worth P700,000 from the house of the victim. They entered the victim’s room around 1 a.m.
Police arrested the victim’s brother Jerome at 4 p.m. last Wednesday at their house in Pacific Villa, after he confessed to have conspired with Apduhan and Dagul.
Apduhan, who claimed to be a former boyfriend of Briones, was arrested few minutes before midnight last Wednesday.
Recovered
Police recovered from him a .45 pistol with nine ammunition, a small sachet of suspected shabu, two jewelry items, two receipts from pawnshops and P8,500 cash
believed to be proceeds from the pawned jewelry items.
Jewelry items worth roughly P600,000 have yet to be recovered.
Mactan Police Station Chief Conrado Manatad said they now have information on the person to whom Apduhan passed the jewelry items.
Briones, a security employee in a mall in Lapu-Lapu City, reported the theft to the Mactan Police Station around 7 a.m. last Wednesday. She said the suspects entered her room while she was asleep.
Pawned
Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, chief of the Lapu-Lapu City Police office, said Apduhan admitted to buying the pistol using the proceeds from the pawned jewelry items.
Lawas said Apduhan also admitted he planned to kill Briones’s new boyfriend.
Apduhan, who used to sell secondhand clothes at the City public market. did not deny the allegations in an inteview with reporters. He said the victim’s younger brother gave him the key to her room.
Apduhan said he used to live with Briones at her house until their recent breakup. Their relationship started in August last year, he said.
The police are preparing theft charges against the two arrested suspects.