Thief nabbed inside hospital

A 38-year-old robber was arrested yesterday inside a hospital where he sought treatment hours after he was wounded in the leg in a shootout with a security guard during a payroll robbery in Mandaluyong City.

Police said the suspect, Alfred Tan, and his escaped cohort, a certain Buddha, could be behind the rash of robberies in Mandaluyong City staged by motorcycle-riding suspects during the past few months. "We are calling on other victims of motorcycle robberies to surface and identify Tan so additional charges would be filed against him and his companions," said Superintendent Ericson Velasquez, the local police chief.

Velasquez said Tan was positively identified by Nicasio Laquian, 40, owner of the Advantage Sales and Promotions Inc., as the one who robbed him of P51,000 payroll money Thursday.

Police prober PO2 Hector Aspa claimed that Laquian along with accounting clerk Lorena Belo, 32, and driver Marvin Reyes, 29, withdrew the said money from the BPI Bank branch along Boni Ave., at about 2 p.m. When they reached their office along P. Cruz St., in Bgy. Zaniga, Tan, armed with a handgun, appeared from nowhere, announced the heist and grabbed the duffel bag containing the money.

Velasquez said security guard Rene Clamor, 28, of the Spymaster Security Services was about to open the gate to allow in Laquian’s Mitsubishi L-300 van (UTK 586) when Tan fired at him three times but missed. However, when no more shots were fired, Clamor ran back outside and opened fire at Tan, who was running toward Buddha on board a waiting motorbike.

Clamor told responding policemen that he hit Tan.

Velasquez immediately issued a flash alarm to neighboring police units to intercept Tan and his companions. The suspects mysteriously disappeared.

But Superintendent Rodelio Jocson, San Juan police chief, ordered his men to conduct a thorough check on hospitals and clinics and found Tan undergoing treatment at the St. Martin de Porres hospital for a gunshot wound in the right leg.

Tan did not resist arrest when combined elements of the Mandaluyong and San Juan police announced his arrest.

Velasquez said Tan admitted participation in Laquian’s robbery. He said Buddha took their loot in his escape.

Velasquez ordered a manhunt operation against Buddha. Tan is presently detained at the Mandaluyong City police detention center while charges of robbery are being readied against him. – Non Alquitran