Fastfood heist a ‘dry run’ for larger robbery job?

The Jollibee outlet heist in Pasig City last Aug. 17 was staged by a 14-man Ozamis robbery group as a "dry run" for a much bigger future robbery, police said yesterday.

Police said tactical interrogation of suspects, Domingo Fernandez, 42, and Joselito Manligro, 37, revealed the the fresh recruits of the group were trained to conduct surveillance and on tactics of evading pursuers during the Jollibee robbery.

"They were armed to the teeth. But they hit the Jollibee outlet because they were in the process of training their new recruits before pulling off a big job," said a police investigator who interrogated Fernandez and Manligro.

Manligro is one of the group’s fresh recruits. However, before Manligro could learn how the group operates, he was arrested along with Fernandez in their respective residences in Navotas by combined elements of the Pasig City police and the Regional Intelligence Special Operations Office (RISOO).

Fernandez told Superintendent John Sosito, Pasig City police chief that aside from Manligro there were new faces in their robbery group when they struck at the Jollibee outlet located at the Manggahan Village Center in Barangay Manggahan. But he said, it was not him but his companion, a certain Robert Ortiz, who knew about the identities of the new recruits and the old faces of the Ozamis robbery group. Ortiz compartmentalized the operation of the group to prevent members from squealing when arrested.

Fernandez said Ortiz hinted that they would strike a much bigger target right after the Jollibee outlet robbery but did not elaborate.

Armed with Fernandez’s revelation, Sosito ordered a tight watch of commercial centers in Pasig City to prevent the Ozamis robbery group from striking without any resistance. He also alerted neighboring police forces of the group’s plan.

Ortiz and another participant in the Jollibee robbery, Paciano Lagunan were being sought for robbery at the Mercury Drug store branch in Makati City last Jan. 11.

Sosito has launched a massive police manhunt for Ortiz, who has direct contact with the group’s financier and protector. It was the financier who supplied the group with high-powered firearms, including a B-40 anti-tank rocket launcher.

Fernandez said the Jollibee heist was staged to raise funds for the acquisition of ammunition for the anti-tank weapon and not intended to embarrass the Arroyo government.

But the police are trying to determine whether the financier of the group is a former police or military official-turned politician, who is allegedly involved in destabilization plots.