Butuan hotel rob suspect arrested

ALEGRIA, Surigao del Norte — Agents of the Regional Police Mobile Group arrested here yesterday one of the five suspects in the robbery at the Butuan Royal Plaza Hotel last Sept. 23.

The suspect, Bernaldez Montañer, 32, was caught in Barangay Campo Edward after two months of surveillance.

Past midnight of Sept. 23, five men posing as customers held at gunpoint the security guard, bellboy and cashier of the Butuan Royal Plaza Hotel, after which they barged into the room of the hotel owner and demanded cash and jewelry.

Before fleeing, the robbers ransacked the hotel’s bar of expensive wines.

Meanwhile, a barangay head and two civilian volunteers have been shot dead and another militiaman has been wounded in an attack which police said stemmed from personal grudges. — Ben Serrano