8 alleged pawnshop robbers fall in QC

MANILA, Philippines - A group of robbers described by police as the “Snow White and the seven dwarves” was arrested in a house in Quezon City while digging a tunnel leading to a pawnshop in Barangay Commonwealth shortly after midnight yesterday.

Nabbed were Cecile Ibanez and her seven male cohorts Ortiz Latungan, Eric Secyang, Arthur Bino, Laurence Doyau, Tarex Tayaban, Ruben Sebnagen and Elmo Bustarde.

Ibanez rented the house owned by Jenny Alvior in Barangay Commonwealth prior to the discovery of the tunnel, Quezon City Police District director Chief Superintendent Richard Albano said.

The suspects dug up several meters of tunnel leading to the Ochoa Realica pawnshop, police said.

“They were just a few meters away from the pawnshop,” said Chief Inspector Rodel Marcelo, head of the QCPD’s criminal investigation and detection unit.

Senior Superintendent Roberto Fajardo of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-National Capital Region said the alleged gang leader, Teddy Castro, was arrested last Sunday in Parañaque City.

Castro supposedly spilled the beans on the group’s operation.

Policemen led by Inspector Alan de la Cruz and Chief Inspector Wilfredo Sy spotted one of the eight suspects and tailed him until they reached a house where sacks of soil were piled up.

The other suspects were caught digging a hole in the ground leading to the pawnshop.

QCPD deputy director for administration Senior Superintendent Joel Pagdilao said seized from the suspects were two hand grenades, a hydraulic jack, two hand drills, two crowbars, a head lamp, an LPG tank, electric fan and a lamp.

Another leader of the group, Julio Bidking, was collared by members of the Police Regional Office-Cordillera headed by Chief Superintendent Isagani Perez in Quezon City on Monday.

Other theft cases

Marcelo said they were cross-matching the finger prints of the arrested suspects with the latent prints from other burglary cases.

Fajardo disclosed that Castro has pending robbery cases in Baguio and Palawan.

“Once they had operated in one area, they would transfer to other places,” he said.