FOLLOWING the arrest of four suspects and the identification of the other three, who are still being sought by the police, the investigation into the robbery of the Oro Sugbo Pawnshop and Jewelry Store in Colon Street, Barangay Kalubihan, Cebu City last Saturday, November 25, 2023, is starting to produce results.
Two of the four people arrested, Dann Carlo Geverola Flores and Jordan Ramos Baquiano, both from Barangay Gutlang in Argao town, were captured at dawn on Monday, November 27 in Sibonga town at a police checkpoint.
The other two, a woman and a man, were apprehended in Mandaue City, according to Police Lieutenant Colonel Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesman for Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO 7) Director General Anthony Aberin.
However, Pelare said they are still determining whether the two people apprehended in Mandaue City played a part in the Oro Sugbo heist due to the weapons seized from their possession.
Investigators have already determined that the two guys detained in Sibonga were involved in the heist due to the red Honda Civic car that they used when they were apprehended.
The police also retrieved a sling bag, baseball caps, t-shirts, a hand grenade, a grenade rifle, and a KG9 with six live bullets from the said vehicle, whose license plate was replaced with a carton with the words "Temp. plate for registration.”
Based on surveillance camera footage, the red Honda Civic was following the two motorcycles that the four armed men were riding when they fled the crime scene last Saturday.
Pelare said that local players may have orchestrated the heist in coordination with a well-known robbery group from outside Cebu since this kind of work cannot be organized by an average person.
The police official revealed that the investigators have already identified the local players.
He also did not rule out the possibility that an influential person was involved in the robbery.
"The report that we are going to tell you is that nga kining mga local players nato they are all identified. In fact, four of them are already arrested, so duol na kaayo ta para ma uncover nato o ma solve nato ang pattern," Pelare said.
With regards to the jewelry that the robbers had taken, Pelare said these were already given to their cohort, who they had given the task of handling it in line with their plan. (With TPT)