EDITORIAL Rot in the judiciary

A taxicab driver was arrested after being suspected as one of the men who robbed a travel agency last Thursday evening along Osmeña Boulevard.

Theft and Robbery Section policemen identified the suspect as Marvin Silaya, 35, of barangay Mambaling, driver of CTC taxi with plate number GWV-835 that was allegedly used as the getaway vehicle after the robbery.

TRS investigators said bystanders near Royal Prince Travel International saw three men loading a xerox copier, three PC monitors, three CPUs on the said taxi unit last Thursday evening.

Employees of the said establishment only discovered the robbery when they opened the store for business last Friday morning.

After Silaya's arrest, he led the police to an apartment in barangay Duljo-Fatima allegedly rented by their group as a hideout, but his three other companions had already left.

Police found several tools in the said apartment including crowbars and bolt cutters believed to be used for opening doorlocks of the establishments they rob.

Theft and Robbery Section chief Alexis Relado believes Silaya may have alerted his companions about his arrest hence their escape.  Relado said the men were members of a robbery gang from Nasipit, Surigao del Sur.

Silaya also took the police to a hardware shop along M.J. Cuenco Avenue in barangay San Roque where they sold the stolen items.

Police only recovered three of the CPUs stolen from the said travel agency.  Each was worth P20,000.  The same taxi was earlier reported to the TRS as the getaway vehicle of unidentified men who were spotted loading three stolen CPUs from the Web 9 Internet café along Junquera Street, barangay Kamagayan, last May 23.

Silaya reportedly admitted to the police that they were responsible for the series of robberies of LBC branches in Legaspi Street, Mabolo and Pardo branches and a motorshop along Natalio Bacalso Avenue.  - Edwin Ian Melecio/BRP