6 holdup suspects arrested by CIDG

Agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) arrested yesterday six holdup suspects allegedly behind in last Thursday’s P3 million robbery in Quezon City involving a niece of a Davao del Sur Rep. Claude Bautista.

Chief Superintendent Nestorio Gualberto, CIDG chief, identified the suspects as Charlie Young, Noel Torres, Joseph Baldover, Julius Lapada, and the group’s alleged masterminds Maria Salvador Fermar and Michael Macalma.

Except for Macalma, who was arrested in separate CIDG operations in Tuguegarao, Cagayan at dawn yesterday, the suspects were all arrested in Manila.

The suspects were positively identified by their victim, Evelyn Bautista, a nice and staff member of a Davao congressman.

Investigation showed that the victim together with a cousin had just withdrawn P200,000 from RCBC-Quezon Avenue branch at about 10 a.m. last Thursday when they were waylaid by the suspects while aboard Rep. Bautista’s Mitsubishi Space Wagon with license plates LCZ-415 along Quezon Avenue.

The victim said that they were on their way to the House of Representatives at Batasan Hills, when they were robbed. — Jaime Laude