Suspected burglar arrested in Lahug

A suspected burglar was caught by a policeman while forcibly opening the door of an establishment along Salinas Drive in barangay Lahug last Sunday afternoon.

Sr. Insp. Michael Anthony Bastes, chief of the city police Theft and Robbery Section, identified the suspect as Fernando “Andoy” Pangatongan, 30, a resident of Quijano Compound in barangay Calamba.

According to Bastes, Pangatongan was caught forcibly pulling up the roll-on door of Café Bien owned by Reynante Manabat of barangay San Miguel, Talisay City.

PO3 Gerardo Fiel, a TRS member who was on his way to JY Square in barangay Lahug, noticed Pangatongan pulling up the door of the establishment.

Fiel immediately approached him and introduced himself as a policeman but Pangatongan immediately ran towards the 1st Street in La Guardia, prompting him to give chase and finally corner the suspect.

Fiel recovered from his possession a homemade .357 revolver with several bullets. Police later learned that he was with 15-year-old cousin as backup but the boy has fled.

Pangatongan guided the police to the house of his neighbor to whom he sold a 21-inch television, sub-woofers and a laptop that he stole from a house in Danao City few months ago.

Pangatongan told The Freeman that he was once detained at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center for robbery.  — Edwin Ian Melecio/LPM