AFP integrees admit part in Gotesco mall robbery

Four men, alleged Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) personnel, who claimed to belong to the notorious Pentagon Kidnap-for-ramsom (KFR) group, admitted participation in the robbery of a jewelry store at the Gotesco Grand Central mall in Caloocan City two weeks ago and have been arrested in Manila, city police authorities revealed yesterday.

Superintendent Dionisio Borromeo, Caloocan City Police intelligence and investigation division chief, initially identified the suspects as Deksie Makapindig, Nasser Kaluko, Tong Sabdila and Mando Mato, who said they were all natives of Cotobato City. The four were temporarily residing at the Baseco Compound in Tondo, Manila, prior to their arrest.

Borromeo said they also obtained raw information that the four suspects were former Moro National Leberation Front (MNLF) members integrated into the AFP who went AWOL (absence without official leave) to engage in criminal activities. They have also been positively identified in a rogues’ gallery by witnesses as members of the "Martilyo Gang" who figured in the bloody afternoon robbery of Seiko Jewel Square at the second floor of the Ever Gotesco Grand Central Shopping Mall on April 13, a Saturday.

Witnesses pointed to Macapindig and Mato as the ones who threw the grenades at the shoppers to distract the guards from the robbery they were staging. Fortunately, the grenades, military-issued M-67 and M-57 types whose pins had been removed, failed to explode and were safely exploded in place by the bomb disposal squad of the local Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team.

A security guard of the store, which had also been robbed twice last year, was killed in the heist, while three shoppers were hit by stray bullets.

The four suspects were arrested inside a food chain along Aduana Street in Intramuros, Manila by Intelligence agents of the Western Police District (WPD) at around 5 p.m. Saturday in a drug buy-bust operation. The Manila lawmen seized an undetermined amount of shabu and a .38 caliber revolver. The four were subsequently turned over to the Caloocan City police after charges of illegal possession of drugs and guns were filed against them in Manila.

While under interrogation, the suspects broke down and admitted participation in the Gotesco robbery in Caloocan City. Probers initially gathered that the heist was cooked up and participated in by some 10 men.