The two suspects are now the subject of an intensive tactical interrogation in a "safehouse" in Pasig City as police investigators try to determine if they were also involved in recent restaurant heists in Metro Manila and neighboring towns and cities, sources said.
Pasig City police chief Superintendent John Sosito declined to comment on the arrest of the gang members, but one police source said the suspects would be presented by Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., Metro Manila police chief Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco to President Arroyo at Malacañang today.
The source identified the arrested suspects as Alcher Dialino of BF Subdivision, Las Pinas City and Jesse Calda of Tondo, Manila.
Combined elements of the Pasig City police and the Regional Intelligence and Special Operations Office (RISOO) cornered Dialino and Calda during raids at their respective safehouses, the source said.
The arrest of the two suspects was made possible through the help of a 45-year-old taxi driver who was passing the Jollibee restaurant at the Manggahan Village Center when the Resto gang staged the robbery.
The taxi driver identified Dialino and Calda through police mug shots.
However, the major breakthrough came when a team headed by Inspector Rodante Arcigal of the Pasig City police arrested a certain Bobby Imperial two days after the robbery. Imperial admitted selling several of the valuables taken by the Resto Gang from customers of the Jollibee restaurant.
The same source said that the Resto Gang are currently quarrelling over the loot. It was learned that leaders of the gang deceived some members on the actual amount yielded in the heist.
"Some members felt they were being shortchanged by their leaders," said the source, who asked not to be named.
The National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) came out with a press release last Thursday, stating that Dialino and Calda were already arrested. However, NCRPO spokesman Superintendent Julius Abanes later called up reporters, saying the suspects were only identified by the taxi driver and were not arrested.