Cebu cops bracing for Baleleng heists

CEBU CITY — Still unable to identify the robbers behind the heist of a rural bank early last week, the police are now bracing for a more formidable foe — the Kuratong Baleleng gang.

Both the city police and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the regional police said they have received reports that members of the notorious Kuratong Baleleng gang, based in Ozamiz City, are now here and are poised to stage robberies.

The police warned that the gang’s possible targets are banks and jewelry and money-changing shops.

CIDG regional director Edwin Diocos told The Freeman that he has received reliable information that at least four Kuratong Baleleng members arrived in Cebu last Wednesday.

Diocos said a police inspector, who was on the same boat from Ozamiz City, reported that he spotted the suspected Kuratong Baleleng members aboard the same vessel.

The police officer was on his way to Cebu for an interview in connection with his pending rank promotion.

"He (the police investigator) had positively identified the four," Diocos said.

Cebu City deputy police chief Josephus Angan said his office also received the same report.

Angan, however, gave assurance that the police have been alerted about the presence of the suspected Kuratong Baleleng men in the province.

He said Cebuanos should not panic over the report, adding that the police are on top of the situation. "We assure the businessmen that they are safe," he added.

Angan said he has relayed the information to the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division and the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch, which will both help neutralize the notorious robbery gang.

Both Angan and Diocos warned commercial establishments, particularly banks and jewelry and money-changing shops, to adopt stricter security measures.

The Kuratong Baleleng was responsible for several big-time and daring robberies and kidnappings for ransom in Metro Manila and Mindanao.

Recently, the gang was tagged as behind the series of attempts to dump smuggled rice from Ozamiz in Cebu.

Kuratong Baleleng started out as a militia group formed by police officers themselves to help them fight cattle-rustlers and the New People’s Army in Mindanao. It, however, degenerated into a criminal gang.

The reported arrival of Kuratong Baleleng members in Cebu is expected to be a major headache to provincial and city police. The Metro Cebu area was hit by a series of daring daylight robberies in the past few weeks.

Last April 9, five men, armed with Armalite rifles, blocked the vehicle of the Rural Bank of Subangdaku on the driveway of the White Gold Club, and took P2 million from the bank’s employees. — Freeman News Service