Another heist in broad daylight: Bacolod pawnshop loses P1M jewelry to robbers

BACOLOD City, Philippines — Only a month after a pawnshop here was robbed of P20 million in cash and jewelry pieces, another pawnshop in the busy downtown area was robbed in broad daylight over the weekend.

In just one minute and 15 seconds, at 9 a.m. last Saturday, F & C Pawnshop,  located at Gatuslao-Gonzaga Sts., was robbed of P1 million worth of jewelry pieces by five armed men and a woman, believed to be members of the Dipolog-Ozamis-Parohinog Robbery Group.

Acting Bacolod police director, Senior Supt. Edgardo Ordaniel, said recordings of a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera showed that the suspects entered the pawnshop through its front and back doors and immediately disarmed the two guards.

The suspects then ordered the guards and the five pawnshop employees to lie face-down on the floor, smashed the glass of the display cabinets with tire ranges and tube pipes, seized the jewelry pieces, and escaped onboard a maroon Nissan Escapade van, Ordaniel said.

The rented van was later recovered near the old city slaughterhouse in Brgy. 36, where the driver, Rolan Tambasen, 45, of Brgy. Taculing, was found hogtied, gagged and blindfolded.

A vendor outside the pawnshop, who witnessed the robbery, said that aside from the suspects who entered the pawnshop, she saw about 10 men with long firearms manning the traffic and serving as look-outs.

Initial police investigation showed that about 30 minutes before the robbery, a certain James Santos Gonzales of Cubao, Quezon City, got on the van driven by Tambasen and owned by the Voyage San Soucis at RBM Building Door in Brgy. Singcang-Airport.

Tambasen said there were five passengers, including Gonzales, on the van and when they were in front of a hotel at Araneta Street, one of the suspects took over the vehicle, while the others wrapped his face with packing tape, hogtied him and placed him on the back seat.

They stopped twice along the way and several other persons boarded the van, Tambasen said.

Ordaniel said they are still investigating Tambasen and have sent the packing tape wrapped around his face to the Philippine National Police crime laboratory for possible latent prints.

Witnesses claimed the suspects boarded a black Chevrolet suburban and motorcycles after abandoning the van.

Four of the six suspects have already been identified by the police Sunday, but Ordaniel refused to divulge the names while charges were being readied against them.

Ordaniel has ordered the relief of Senior Inspector Jose Mulleta as chief of the Intelligence Branch for failing to intercept the F & C Pawnshop heist. Mulleta was replaced by Inspector Mark Angelo Jungco.

A Special Investigation Task Group was formed to swiftly resolve the case, headed by Ordaniel and composed of Supt. Santiago Rapiz as spokesperson, with personnel from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, BCPO Intelligence and Investigation branches, and the Philippine National Police crime lab.

Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz, PNP Western Visayas regional director, also formed a Special Investigation Task Group to immediately solve the crime.

The Dipolog-Ozamis-Parohinog Robbery Group are suspected to be the same group behind the broad daylight robbery of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO), also in this city, in March last year.

At least 12 suspects divested the CENECO office of P3.6 million in cash, which were the electric cooperative’s collection for the week that was to be deposited to the bank on the same day.

Six of the 12 suspects were arrested and charged. One of the suspects was also arrested in Cagayan de Oro last November.

The same group was also suspected to be behind the robbery of Prenda Negrense Pawnshop and Jewelry, located at Luzuriaga St., this city last Feb. 17, where at least P20 million in cash and jewelry pieces were carted away by the suspects.

The police have identified one of the two suspects.

Bacolod businessmen are alarmed by the series of robberies believed to be perpetrated by a big-time robbery group.  (FREEMAN)