Convent worker in Holy Week heist nabbed

MANILA, Philippines - A man who used to work as a driver for a convent in Quezon City was arrested Friday night for allegedly conspiring with robbers who took almost P500,000 from the convent last March.

After months in hiding, Efren Padilla, 41, was caught at a machine shop along Marcos Highway in Marikina City at past 7 p.m. Friday, said Chief Inspector Rodel Marcelo, head of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (QCPD-CIDU).

Police officers led by Senior Police Officer 1 Kristo Romualdo served an arrest warrant on the suspect, a former driver of the Convent of the Holy Spirit in Barangay Immaculate Conception.

 Judge Manuel Sta. Cruz of the Regional Trial Court Branch 226 ordered Padilla’s arrest for robbery in connection with the Holy Week robbery.

Inspector Alan dela Cruz, head of the QCPD-CIDU’s theft and robbery investigation section, said Padilla was initially suspected of being an accomplice after he was seen talking with a man who turned out to be one of the robbers.

On the day of the robbery, five armed men barged into the convent while employees and nuns were counting the payroll money delivered by an armored van.

After the robbery, Padilla was brought in for questioning by policemen and was told that he would undergo a lie detector test. Padilla left and had not surfaced since then. Padilla was suspected of hiding in his hometown in Bugallon, Pangasinan in the months after the March heist.

Eventually, policemen received a tip about that Padilla was working at the machine shop in Marikina.