QCPD cops sneak into Iloilo town to catch rob suspects

MANILA, Philippines - The hilly area in Iloilo where suspected robbers Willy Enriquez and Irenio De la Cruz had gone into hiding was infested with communist rebels, which meant that the two platoons of policemen had to be scaled down to only 12 law enforcers, a source said yesterday.

According to an insider, they had to arrest the two suspects in the violent Robinson’s Galleria robbery almost unnoticed so as not to make it appear like an anti-insurgency operation, citing previous ambushes of uniformed personnel there.

“Fully armed members of the Regional Mobile Group were supposed to join the operation but the plan was scrapped,” the source said in an interview.

Instead, plainclothes policemen conducted the operation – most of them walking alone and at some distance from each other as they closed in on their target – a bahay kubo where Enriquez and De la Cruz had sought refuge since the March 29 robbery.

It was at this hut where Enriquez and De la Cruz had been staying since the mall robbery last month that claimed the life of a bank security guard and injured six others. Policemen had to trek a rough road for two hours to get to the spot where the hut stood.

Chief Inspector Rodel Marcelo, head of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, said it was on March 28 when the two left the hut. The robbery happened the day after and they were back in Iloilo by March 30.

“It’s as if they would go to Manila just to rob,” Marcelo said in a separate interview.

Nine crimes in two years

Based on evidence and identification by witnesses, the police have linked the robbery group to eight other crimes all over the country. Marcelo said Enriquez had been tagged in a robbery at another branch of the Sanry’s in Pasay City in 2010.

Enriquez had also been identified by a witness in a robbery at Robinson’s Dasmarinas in December 2011. In March 2011, they allegedly shot dead Rufino Binay during a robbery in Laguna, Marcelo said.

The police official said Enriquez had also been tagged in another violent robbery in Robinson’s Fairview that resulted in another death.

SPO4 Allan dela Cruz said the slugs of a .45 caliber handgun used in the Robinson’s Galleria robbery matched those recovered from site of a massacre in Lapu-Lapu City, a moneychanger shop robbery in Cagayan de Oro and a heist in Laguna, all in 2011; and the foiled armored van robbery at the Alabang Town Center last February.