Reward offered for arrest of Cebu bank robbers

CEBU CITY — Mayor Tomas Osmeña has offered a P50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a group of armed robbers who, after a two-month lull, preyed on a Chinabank branch at the North Reclamation area the other day, carting away P150,000 in cash and leaving a security guard dead.

Authorities believe that the daring daylight heist was masterminded by fugitive robber Riel Bautista, who was identified by a taxi driver from a rogue’s gallery.

The witness said he saw Bautista disembark from an L-300 van which the ski mask-wearing robbers — numbering at least six — used as getaway vehicle and abandoned in a compound in Subangdaku, about a kilometer away from the crime scene.

The robbers ambushed one of the bank’s tellers and two security guards as they were coming out of the entrance of the mall where the Chinabank branch was located at about 9:30 a.m.

Security guard Erwin Beranquil, 22, of Pioneer Detective and Security Agency, was shot. He died while being rushed to the hospital.

Beranquil and fellow guard Lito Miñoza were escorting teller Cherlyn Uy who was carrying a safety box containing money which was supposed to be distributed to the bank’s clients.

Mabolo police chief Eliseo Castronuevo, in an interview over dyLA, said officials of Chinabank have confirmed the stolen amount.

Miñoza said he placed the safety box on a shopping cart he found on the sidewalk. The robbers, he said, opened fire as Beranquil was opening the door of the bank’s L-300 van.

Miñoza said the heist took less than two minutes.

Police probers found eight empty 5.56 mm shells for an M-16 some 10 meters from where Beranquil fell.

Two employees of a nearby establishment, Jade Soramillo and Beverly Berel of RCC Emergency Touch, were wounded when two of the six robbers fired at them.

Cabbie Eduardo Fernandez, of Angel Mae Taxi, identified one of the robbers as Bautista, a key suspect in a series of robberies in cellphone shops and public utility vehicles a few months ago.

Chief theft and robbery investigator Felipe Horonidez said Fernandez saw Bautista on Plaridel street in Barangay Ibabao Mandaue as the suspect got off from their L-300 van. Police found the van in the Subangdaku compound two hours after the robbery, with two pairs of ski masks inside it.

Deputy police chief Alexander Abadinas described the heist as "well-planned."

Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) head Edwin Diocos, who assisted in the investigation, said Bautista was "very aggressive" to have hit such a big establishment. — Freeman News Service