Landbank heist suspects tagged in Union Bank robbery

Quezon City Police District (QCPD) intelligence chief Superintendent Bernabe Balba said they are looking into the possibility that the robbers behind the Union Bank heist last Tuesday are the same ones who held up the West Avenue branch of the Landbank of the Philippines last month.

Balba told The STAR that the suspected members of the Ampang-Colangco gang only staged the heist at the Union Bank Timog Avenue branch without using a woman to get into the bank, since they had been associated with this modus operandi after the Landbank robbery. The suspects in both heists continuously fired their guns as they made their escape.

He said they are in the process of locating the lairs of the suspects based on “intelligence information from the grapevine.”

QCPD director Senior Superintendent Magtanggol Gatdula also vowed to leave no stone unturned in the investigation of the Union Bank heist and other bank robberies to gather vital information.

 “If we are to look into the pattern of the attacks and the firearms carried and used by these hoodlums and hooligans, we take into consideration in our investigation that the group might be composed of former or active military or police personnel,” he said.

The QCPD also released artist’s sketches of two more suspects in the armored van robbery at Anson’s Supermarket in Project 3, which occurred two hours before the Union Bank heist.

The first suspect is a dark-skinned man, approximately 39 to 40 years old, who was seen carrying an M-16 rifle and wearing a blue sando and brown short pants.

The second suspect is a fair-complexioned man, approximately 40 years old, who was seen carrying a baby Armalite and wearing a cap, a light blue shirt and blue pants.

Landbank suspect denies allegations

One of the men tagged as a suspect in the last month’s robbery went to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Wednesday afternoon and denied that he was part of the armed group who robbed the Landbank branch on West Avenue.

Head Agent Angelito Magno said Rosito Pesquira, 35, who works as an administrative aide at the Las Piñas City police, said he was attending to his wife, who was giving birth at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Pasay City, when the Landbank robbery occurred. His wife was discharged from the hospital the following day.

It was only when he watched the news on television last Feb. 4 that he became aware of the heist and saw one of the arrested suspects mention his name as one of his cohorts. His picture was also shown on television.

When asked if he knew the arrested suspect, who allegedly implicated him in the commission of the crime, Pesquira said he the person was often seen their neighborhood.

Pesquira also told the NBI that the picture shown in the news was the one he submitted to a financing firm in order to get a motorcycle loan. Coincidentally, his motorcycle was stolen two days before the bank robbery.

“To prove his claim, he showed us a copy of the police blotter regarding his missing motorcycle,” Magno said.

The NBI said it would conduct a separate probe into the robbery and will coordinate with the police. – Reinir Padua, Evelyn Macairan