Soda firm heist suspects fight over P6.1-M loot

Infighting within a group of robbers allegedly involved in last Monday’s heist at the warehouse of two soda companies has given police investigators clues about the whereabouts of the suspects.

Superintendent Franklin Moises Mabanag, chief of the Quezon City Police District-Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (QCPD-CIDU), said an informant had provided them details on the location of the suspects.

“It appears that there is already an infighting within the group concerning their sharing of the loot,” Mabanag told The STAR in an interview.

Witnesses had identified Adonis Lamis, Jonathan Peralta and Randy Ledason as among the 15 suspects who posed as agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and barged into the warehouse of RC Cola and Zesto Cola in Novaliches early morning Monday and took away cash worth P6.1 million.

The three, who had been arrested in the past for other offenses, were identified from among the police’s rogue gallery.

Lamis and Peralta were identified as members of the Sibuyas Group, which was once involved in kidnapping Indian nationals and had shifted to robbery in recent years.

Ledason, a native of Samar, on the other hand, is believed to be a member of the Abuyog Group, a notorious robbery group based in the same province.

According to Mabanag, an earlier check revealed that Lamis and Peralta had already abandoned their last known addresses in Quezon City.

Superintendent Marcelino Pedrozo Jr., chief of the theft and robbery section of the QCPD-CIDU, said charges of robbery in band could be filed against the 15 suspects next week.   – Reinir Padua