Retiring CPD cop fights six jeepney robbers

An operative of the Central Police District (CPD) was commended yesterday by district director Chief Superintendent Victor Luga for bravery when he fought six armed jeepney holdup men along Sumulong Highway, Antipolo City Wednesday night, wounding two of them, which led to their arrest.

The hero, SPO4 Douglas Pendon, 55, night shift supervisor at CPD-Station 8 (Project 4), is set to retire from the service next year.

Arrested were Rey Agcaoili, 22, of Cainta, Rizal and Leo Rapesta, 22, of Marikina City, both security guards, who were wounded in a gunfight with the lawman and are now confined at the Quirino Memorial Medical Center.

Antipolo police said Pendon was on his way to work from his house in Antipolo, on board a passenger jeepney. In the vicinity of Valley Golf Club along Sumulong Highway, Barangay Mayamot, Antipolo City, six armed men, at gunpoint, announced a holdup.

The suspects collected the passengers’ cash and valuables, including Pendon’s wrist watch worth P2,500. With drawn guns and bladed weapons, the suspects ordered the driver to stop and they alighted downhill from the golf club.

Pendon followed and just as the robbers were fleeing, he pulled out his 9mm service firearm and identified himself as a cop, prompting the robbers to shoot him, hitting his left foot. The wounded policeman exchanged fire and hit two of the suspects.

Four of the suspects’ cohorts, however, helped the wounded duo to a wooded portion of the golf club and made their escape.

Police scoured nearby hospitals and found the wounded holdup men seeking medical treatment at the Quirino Labor Hospital.

Police recovered 9mm and .32 caliber empty shells at the crime scene but they suspected that a caliber .38 revolver was also used by the suspects in their encounter with Pendon. The robbers admitted to the police that they were also responsible for another heist in Antipolo last Tuesday. – Pia Lee-Brago