Osmeña fetches fallen fugitive aboard private plane

CEBU CITY — The region’s most wanted man, pale and grimacing in pain, finally arrived here the other day after city policemen caught him in Pagadian City.

Clad in denim shorts and a white sleeveless shirt, Ruel Rey Torres, the most elusive suspect of many big-time robberies here, arrived with a hint of importance and class.

Torres came on a private plane with Mayor Tomas Osmeña who personally went to Pagadian City to get the prized catch of his time, and whose arrest is seen to end the spate of robberies in the city.

Osmeña got Torres from the Pagadian District Hospital under heavy guard where he was treated for two gunshot wounds he reportedly got from a shootout with the team of Cebu City policemen who went to Mindanao to arrest him.

But Torres, now confined at the Cebu City Medical Center, denied he shot it out with the seven-man team led by Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch chief Paul Labra.

Labra’s team earlier reported that SPO1 Adonis Dumpit and P02 Nilo Arriola shot Torres when he pulled out a caliber .45 pistol and fired at the arresting officers.

But Torres insisted he had no gun and he was about to surrender when he was shot.

Labra said when Torres was hit, he rushed to the latter’s side, tried to stop the bleeding with a handkerchief, and rushed him to the hospital.

Torres also denied have led a number of robberies in Metro Cebu since last year that earned him the notoriety he has now.

Torres founded the robbery group whose members included Roldan Villanueva and Junard Saladaga.

Torres and Villanueva were caught last Sept. 15 at the north reclamation area after robbing an employee of Lim Block Inc. of P151,700 in payroll.

Both of them posted bail on Oct. 21 and were freed from the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center.

Torres said Danny Limotan, one of his henchmen, tagged him as responsible for the series of heists recently because they had a falling out after Limotan stole his caliber .45 pistol. — Freeman News Service