Limp gives away villager involved in gold bar heist

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Police have detained a villager whose pronounced limp gave him away as one of those allegedly involved in the P14-million gold bar heist at the mining site of the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Corp. in Mankayan town last Sept. 20.

Chief Superintendent Victor Luga, police director of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), believes that the arrest of Joseph Coop is a step forward in the early solution of the daring dusk robbery which left a Lepanto engineer and four security personnel dead.

Coop is now detained at the Benguet provincial jail. Charges of multiple murder and robbery in band have been filed against him.

Police said witnesses identified Coop, a resident of Barangay Colalo, Mankayan town, as one of the robbers because of his limp.

Coop, tagged as an alleged member of an organized crime group, however, denied any involvement in the gold bar heist.

Ski mask-wearing men brandishing automatic rifles pulled off the robbery near the Lepanto mill-site, taking advantage of the company’s preparations for its 67th anniversary.

After gunning down the engineer and the four guards, the robbers reportedly fled on foot with their loot — 21.8 kilos of gold bars valued at about P14 million — either toward Bakun town, also in Benguet, or Ilocos Sur.

Local authorities, who earlier hinted of an "inside job," considered the heist as the biggest so far involving a mining company in Benguet.

President Arroyo herself has ordered an immediate solution to the robbery.

Luga earlier gave Benguet policemen tracking down the robbers until Friday noon last week to produce positive results in their investigation.

He said Coop was also wanted for a frustrated murder case. "He (Coop) has a reputation as a lawless element," he said.

Police are also hunting down a certain Huwebes Miguel who, Luga said, was also identified by witnesses as one of the robbers.

Luga said they are still following up other leads in the heist, including the possible involvement of the New People’s Army (NPA), and carefully sifting information from witnesses to identify the rest of the robbers.

Two days after the heist, a deaf-mute hunter, a certain Efren Agsayang, was gunned down by Benguet policemen pursuing the robbers.

Luga vowed that the policemen involved in the fatal shooting will be charged criminally.

Luga has apologized to the family of Agsayang, a resident of Barangay Tabbak, Mankayan town.

Agsayang was reportedly hunting for wildlife and gathering wild guava and other fruits when policemen spotted him.

Sources in Mankayan claimed that pursuing policemen had also killed three other villagers. The police, however, have yet to admit the alleged killings.