Pursuing lawmen later caught two of the robbers after they sped through a roadblock two towns further north in San Remegio.
When the two arrested suspects were finally identified, it appeared that the police might have hit the jackpot when one of them turned out to be Roy Quimada, believed to be the mastermind of the string of robberies that has lately gripped Cebu.
Quimada was trying to make good his escape in the company of his nephew, Earl Quimada Mondarte, when policemen cornered his getaway car, a rented blue Toyota Corolla Altis, near the San Remegio town hall.
The two suspects gave up without a fight.
Minutes earlier, at about 12:10 p.m., three men armed with caliber .45 pistols barged into the Aspac Bank branch in Tabogon and announced a holdup, taking by surprise the bank guard and two bank personnel who were all busy preparing to take their lunch.
One of the men grabbed bank manager Arlene Tolcidas by the hair and pointed a gun to her head.
Another ordered the cashier at gunpoint to open the vault and bring out all the money in there.
The guard, Larry Naneza, was disarmed and held at bay by the third robber.
In less than three minutes, the three men finished the job and fled with P386,670 in cash and 29 checks worth P103,558 on board a blue Kawasaki Aura motorcycle.
Aside from the bank manager getting her hair pulled, the three bank personnel were otherwise left unhurt.
Inspector Wilfredo Giducos, Tabogon police chief, said the three robbers sped north and apparently at a designated place somewhere in Barangay Sambag, were met by Quimada and Mondarte in the Altis.
A safety box containing the checks was handed to Quimada, while the men in the motorcycle kept the cash with them. The two groups then went their separate ways, Giducos said.
By then, however, the alarm was already flashing through several towns north and south of Tabogon and the police were already setting up roadblocks.
At a roadblock in San Remegio, policemen at first did not mind the speed with which the Altis approached because the alarm flashed on police radio was only for a blue motorcycle.
But when the car did not stop and instead sped through, its occupants shouting to the police that they were in a hurry to meet a woman at the Hagnaya wharf, San Remegio police chief Laurel Almirante immediately became suspicious.
Almirante gave chase, firing warning shots to alert other policemen. The car was eventually cornered near the San Remegio town hall.
Upon learning about Quimada’s arrest, Juanito Enguerra, chief of the Special Operations Group of the Cebu police, rushed to San Remegio to serve an arrest warrant on Quimada in connection with an estafa case in his hometown Pagadian City for forging the signatures of several bank depositors.
Enguerra said Quimada is believed to be the brains behind the latest string of robberies in Cebu, having gathered together the remnants of the robbery gangs which used to be headed by the notorious Rey Torres and Danny Limotan, both of whom have since been arrested.
Enguerra said the police had found it difficult to pin down Quimada because he often acted only as a lookout and never directly took part in actual holdups.
Paul Labra, chief of the Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Bureau of the Cebu City police, said Quimada was not only the brains of the new robbery gang operating in Cebu but also took charge of its logistical needs.
Labra said Quimada also acted as the go-between between his group and an even bigger criminal gang based in Ozamiz City.
Quimada, whose group was believed behind the holdup of a Western Union branch last Oct. 15, has denied any hand in any of the recent robberies.
He, however, did admit knowing Alladin Jayme, one of those believed involved in the Western Union heist, saying he stood as one of his wedding sponsors.
In a related development, the Rural Bank of Rizal in Barangay San Isidro, Taytay, Rizal lost P200,000 in cash before noon yesterday to two suspected members of the notorious Waray-Waray gang.
Senior Superintendent Freddie Panen, Rizal police director, said the robbers disarmed the bank’s lone security guard and at gunpoint, ordered five other people inside the bank to lie face down on the floor while they scooped the cash from the tellers’ booths.
"They did not bother to get the money in the safety vault which was open at the time," Panen said. The heist was over in five minutes.
Panen said the two robbers, who did not bother to hide their faces and who spoke a Visayan dialect, fled on board a vehicle parked a few blocks away from the bank. — Freeman News Service, Non Alquitran