4 robbers nabbed in QC

Four suspected robbers believed to be behind the series of heists and break-ins in Metro Manila and nearby provinces were arrested by Quezon City policemen on Thursday.

“Based on our calculation, around P12 million have been amassed by this group from its operations,” Superintendent Franklin Moises Mabanag, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit of the Quezon City Police District, told reporters in an interview.

The suspects were identified as Fernando Cagoco, 36; Bernardino Manipol, 32; Angelito Pangan, 42; and Tirso Picardal, 37.

Mabanag told The STAR that prior to the arrest, the suspects were gearing up for two more robbery operations with loots expected to amount to P25 million.

During a press conference yesterday, QCPD director Senior Superintendent Magtanggol Gatdula said the group’s modus operandi is to act as policemen to conceal their activities.

Police recovered from the suspects three black t-shirts with PNP markings, three PNP bull caps, acetylene equipment including two acetylene tanks, a gray Toyota Corolla, with license plate TTF-330, and a maroon Honda Civic, with license plate UHS-358.

Superintendent Antonio Yarra said the suspects were arrested at a birthday party of one of Cagoco’s children held at an apartment unit in Barangay Talipapa, Caloocan.

Yarra said Cagoco and his live-in partner have been renting the apartment for almost a year.

The arrest was made after a tip was received from an informant on the location of the suspects, the arrest was made through separate arrest warrants issued by courts in Mabalacat and Magalang towns in Pampanga and Malolos, Bulacan for cases of illegal possession of firearms and usurpation of authority.

Witnesses positively identified the four to be behind the P1.6 million robbery at a shop of liquefied petroleum gas distributor CATGas on Visayas Avenue last June; the P6.5-million heist at the offices of RC Cola and Zesto Cola in Novaliches last April and the P400,000 pawnshop robbery in Forest Hill Subdivision last July.

Chief Inspector Audie Madrideo, chief of the District Police Intelligence Operating Unit of the Manila Police District, also identified Cagoco and Manipol as the ones who robbed and shot dead lawyer Alfred Dy after the victim withdrew P1 million from a bank in Manila last May.

Madrideo said two responding MPD policemen were also killed in the incident.