Torres gets 8 years for bank robbery

The court yesterday sentenced notorious robber Ruel "Rey" Torres to eight years imprisonment and ordered him to pay the Talisay City-based Peninsula Bank the P850,000 he and two other robbers took during a heist in April last year.

Four jail guards escorted Torres to the Regional Trial Court Branch 5 shortly before 3 p.m. for his verdict. But he was forced to wait until 5 p.m. before Judge Ireneo Lee-Gako Jr. released the two-page decision.

Torres, whose leg was amputated after he was shot and wounded by policemen during his arrest in Mindanao on May 14, 2005, did not say any word when Gako explained to him the decision in Cebuano.

Before the verdict was read, Torres told The Freeman that he was innocent of the crime. "Kon ako'y pahukmon, abswelto g'yod ko kay dili man ako'y nanulis, gipasanginlan ra man ko."

But Gako ruled that the evidence against Torres was very strong because he was positively identified by security guard Dindo Bermejo as one of three armed men who divested the bank cashier of the P850,000 payroll money.

Bermejo, a martial arts expert, failed to react when Torres, reportedly armed with an Ingram assault pistol, and his companions staged a lighting attack while he and bank cashier Laura Tan were about to deposit the money at another bank in Tabunok.

Bermejo recalled that at gunpoint, Torres warned him: "Lihok ron dong, lihok ron dong, patay ka g'yod kon molihok ka." Torres quickly disarmed Bermejo of his issued 12-gauge shotgun.

"Hayag kaayo Rey kay alas tres pa sa hapon nahitabo ang tulis ug klaro kaayo ka nila nga giila nga maoy tulisan," Gako told Torres who was standing in front of the bench. - Rene U. Borromeo