Mayor in Greenbelt heist not yet off the hook

MANILA, Philippines - Police will charge Mayor Leoncio Saldivar Jr. of San Nicolas, Pangasinan with harboring criminals after they have gathered enough evidence to link him to the Alvin Flores robbery gang.

Metro Manila police commander Director Roberto Rosales said arrested gang men Dennis Serquina, 27, and Jose Warlito Rodriquito, 52, told investigators they sought refuge in San Nicolas town after robbing a watch store in Greenbelt 5 mall in Makati last Oct. 18 before going their separate ways.

“We are looking into the connivance between the mayor and this robbery group,” he said.

“We are now piecing together the evidence we gathered and comparing them with the statements of two gang members under our custody.”

Ilocos Region police director Chief Superintendent Romeo Gatan said Rodriquito of San Rafael Centro, San Nicolas is a former member of the Scout Rangers, Special Action Force and the Army’s bomb squad.

“Rodriquito admitted participation in the Makati heist as lookout of the group,” he said.

Rosales said Saldivar had admitted that he took care of Flores for months until he recuperated from several gunshot wounds.

Saldivar will be invited for questioning when police have sufficient evidence of his involvement with the Alvin Flores gang, he added.

Gatan said Saldivar had admitted to him that Alvin Flores was brought to his house by Serquina and his alleged nephew, Jay-Ar Saldivar months ago.

The two claimed that Flores was wounded in a bar fight, he quoted Saldivar as saying.

Flores left the mayor’s residence after his wounds had healed, he said.

Gatan believes that Flores could have been wounded during an armored van robbery inside the UP campus in Quezon City on Nov. 10, 2008, where the gang members killed several security guards.

“It was the only robbery in Metro Manila where the gang were engaged in a firefight,” he said.

Rosales said Rodriquito was receiving a monthly salary as utility personnel of the San Nicolas municipality, same with Serquina as bodyguard of Saldivar’s father, Django Saldivar.

“The burden is now in the hands of Mayor Saldivar to prove his innocence while the same burden falls on us (police) to prove him wrong,” he said.

Senior Superintendent Billy Beltran, Metro Manila police intelligence chief, said the Alvin Flores gang was responsible for at least 27 heists in Metro Manila and nearby provinces in 2008 and 14 others this year.

During a press briefing yesterday, Serquina identified one by one the gang members, including himself who was wearing a police blue athletic uniform and armed with a baby Armalite rifle in the Park Trade robbery in Alabang, Muntinlupa.

The gang took P5 million and he got a P110,000 share, he added.

Serquina said five gang men robbed the Rolex watch store at Greenbelt 5 where Armando Domingo was killed in the ensuing shootout with two Taguig police, who were securing Taguig Mayor Freddie Tiñga, who happened to be in the vicinity.

Serquina, who is married and has three children, said he wanted to quit the gang as early as last February after raising enough money.

However, he was not able to raise the matter with Flores and other gang members for fear of the safety of his family.

On the other hand, Rodriquito said he decided to surrender to police in Tayug, Pangasinan last Nov. 2 after talking with his wife and relatives.

Rodriquito surrendered after negotiations initiated by Gatan and Pangsinan police director Senior Superintendent Percival Barba.

Rodriquito said the Alvin Flores gang stayed in a safehouse in Bulacan before staging the Greenbelt robbery.

 Alvin Flores and three other alleged gang men were killed in a shootout with police and the National Bureau of Investigation agents in Cebu City last week. – With Sandy Araneta, Jun Elias