Police thought robbers would strike in Danao
THREE days before they found an abandoned hoard of firearms in a parking lot, the police heard about a band of robbers from Ozamis who had been spotted in Danao City.
“We thought adto sila mangigo didto sa (they would rob a target in) Danao, but because of what happened last Thursday, we realized they probably went to Danao to procure their firearms there,” said Acting Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Mariano Natuel.
At least one other member was identified by the driver of a van the group rented in Cebu, but the police are still verifying that lead.
Natuel said he wasn’t ruling out the possibility that a politician was behind a foiled robbery attempt in Cebu City, where the nine guns were abandoned in a parked van.
With the elections just days away, the police are monitoring illegal activities more closely, said Natuel.
Police officials believe that an Ozamis-based robbery group was planning to use the seven .45 pistols, two KG 9 Ingrams, a hand grenade and two wrenches to rob a pawnshop inside one of the malls in the North Reclamation Area.
But the gang members reportedly panicked at the sight of policemen near the mall, and left their firearms inside the rented Toyota Hi-Ace van (YCD 768), which they also abandoned in a parking lot beside the mall.
The driver, Edgar Rubite, previously identified one of the men as Aylon “Marlon” Parojinog, using some photographs kept in a police file. Rubite also said the group blindfolded him after renting the vehicle.
Danao guns?
The CCPO warned all would-be robbers that the intelligence community from the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 is monitoring attempts to procure guns that may be used criminally.
Natuel said it was last Monday when the police received the tip from an informant about the Ozamis-based robbery group getting sighted in Danao City.
“Dako ang among pagtuo nga pawnshop ang ilang tirahon base sa wrench ug martilyo na nakita pud sulod sa sakyanan (We suspect they were out to rob a pawnshop, considering the hammer and wrench they had with them),” explained Natuel.
Natuel said that based on the tip they received last Monday, the police alerted all banks in the city to tighten their security.
The police official also believes the group is still in Cebu.
On Thursday afternoon, Rubite, 32, who works in Safe Ride Rental in Mandaue City, told the police that Parojinog went to their office at 10 a.m. to rent their Toyota Hi-Ace for three hours.
Lookout
Rubite said that when he drove Parojinog, he was told to stop near a mall in the North Reclamation Area, where several men boarded the vehicle from time to time, until one of the passengers blindfolded and tried to strangle him.
Rubite also overheard the men talking to a woman over the phone, who told them when to disembark. But she later told them there were policemen in the area, and the vehicle came to a stop.
When Rubite peeked, he saw no one was inside the vehicle, so he got out quickly and ran away from the parking lot.
Police do not know yet if there was any connection between that case and a robbery yesterday morning.
A robbery suspect from Ozamis City was collared by the police yesterday morning after he allegedly robbed an attendant of a laundry shop on A.S. Fortuna St. in Mandaue City.
In the Mandaue robbery case yesterday, John Paul Cortes, 32, was arrested around 9 a.m. outside the Pearl Laundry Shop, moments after allegedly robbing Jobelle Bulala, 23, who sustained cuts and bruises in her right arm, left cheek and left shoulder.
Screwdriver
Before declaring a holdup, the suspect pretended to be a customer, asking how much the shop charges for a kilo of clothes.
Armed with a 10-inch screwdriver, the suspect took three cellular phones from the shop. He failed to take the shop’s proceeds, which were kept in a drawer.
“He pulled me and pushed me to the floor. He hit me with the screwdriver,” Bulala said in Cebuano. She managed to get out of the shop, then shouted for help from bystanders who immediately called the police.
Bulala, who is raising a sibling, said she thought the suspect would kill her.
Members of the City Public Safety Company of the Mandaue City Police Office headed by PO2 Sandy Baclay arrested the suspect and recovered the three phones.
Cortes, who was temporarily residing in Barangay Centro, Mandaue City, is detained at the Subangdaku Police Station.