Cops closing in on bike-riding robbers

Northern Police District-District Intelligence and Investigation Division (NPD-DIID) agents are closing in on the motorcycle-riding holdup men who divested an elderly couple of some P1.2 million over the weekend in the Dagat-Dagatan side of Caloocan City.

"We now have our suspects and we are closely watching them," NPD-DIID agent PO2 Ronaldo Subosa said, after the victims pointed out two males in the NPD’s rogues’ gallery as the likely perpetrators.

Subosa claimed that aside from trader Lamberto Mariano, 63, and wife Marina, 60, both of 1730 F. Varona street, Tondo, Manila, the unidentified robbers also held up occupants of a white Honda Civic which was following the Marianos’ vehicle.

"According to witnesses, there were not only three but six robbers and they also robbed another vehicle which was right behind the Marianos," Subosa said.

The suspects, who later fled in tandem on board three brand-new blue Yamaha motorcycles, blocked the couple’s vehicle, a red Nissan Ultra pick-up van (UGU-649), on Tanigue street corner Pampano in Dagat-Dagatan, Caloocan City at about 10 a.m. last Friday.

The victims had just come from a Metrobank branch in North Bay Boulevard, Navotas where they reportedly had withdrawn P1.2 million for the purchase of a house and lot from one Florida Obejas and for the weekend salaries of their trucking firm workers.

Obejas’ residence and that of her agent Marites Baen, are just a few meters away from where the victims were heldup. Obejas and Baen are also subject to police investigation.

The robbery could be a handiwork of a well-entrenched group, according to Subosa, but not that of the notorious "DT Motorcycle Gang" as earlier reported.

"The DT Gang uses big bikes, not the common motorcycles used in robbing the old couple," Subosa explained.

NPD director Chief Superintendent Jose Marlowe Pedregosa formed a combined team from the Caloocan City police and the DIID to track down the suspects who were armed with handguns.

"We have information that the suspects are just around and hopefully we could get them the soonest possible time," Subosa added. –Pete Laude and Nikki Dizon