Payroll heist foiled

Two of six motorcycle-riding robbers were arrested yesterday in Mandaluyong City before they could stage a payroll robbery.

Superintendent Ericson Velasquez, Mandaluyong City police chief, said the suspects, Jennifer Sordilla, 31, of Imus, Cavite and Felipe Rosana, 35, of Barangay de la Paz, Antipolo City claimed they were out to snatch the payroll money for a branch of LBC, a local parcel service company.

Velasquez said Sordilla and Rosana were riding in tandem on a motorcycle with no license plates in front a fastfood restaurant on Shaw Boulevard when spotted by policemen riding on a patrol.

"When my men approached them, the officers noticed a gun tucked in Sordilla’s pants, prompting them to effect his arrest," said Velasquez, adding that the firearm was a caliber .38 revolver with six live bullets.

A subsequent search on Rosana yielded another caliber .38 revolver with live ammunition, police said.

Velasquez ordered the seizure of the suspects’ maroon Kawasaki motorcycle.

During tactical investigation, Sordilla and Rosana admitted they had been casing the area for four days waiting for LBC employees to withdraw money from the AMA bank.

Sordilla and Rosana were posted some 30 to 50 meters from the said bank.

According to the duo, their four companions escaped on board three motorcycles after learning of their arrest. Their cohorts included a certain Ambet, the designated spotter of the LBC vehicle.

Velasquez said they are now determining whether Sordilla and Rosana were involved in past robberies staged by motorcycle-riding men in the city. He said Sordilla and Rosana will be charged with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition before the City Prosecutor’s Office. — Non Alquitran