Resto robbers charged in San Juan

Police filed robbery-holdup charges yesterday against seven members of the Resto Gang responsible for last Saturday’s heist at the Kamameshi Restaurant in Greenhills, San Juan.

Chief Superintendent Rolando Sacramento, director of the Eastern Police District (EPD), said Jay Canlas and six of his cohorts, all John Does, were charged before the San Juan Prosecutor’s Office.

Canlas, who jumped bail after his arrest last year, was identified by witnesses as the man wielding an Armalite rifle while his companions divested Kamameshi patrons of their cash and other valuables.

The same group is also being sought for the robbery of the Outback Restaurant in Libis, Quezon City two days earlier. They were arrested in August last year after robbing two restaurants in San Juan.

Metro police chief Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco has formed three teams of crack police operatives to track down Canlas and his cohorts.

The tracker teams, headed by Superintendent Miguel Laurel, intelligence chief of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), are currently scouring the metropolis and neighboring areas, where the group is believed to be hiding.

Sacramento has reminded San Juan police chief Superintendent Eduardo Lorenzo and Greenhills precinct commander Chief Inspector Felipe Fernando of the NCRPO’s "three strikes and you’re out" policy.

‘I told them to shape up and be on their toes always before it’s too late," the EPD chief said, referring to the fact that the Resto Gang has repeatedly struck in San Juan.