Cebu bank robbers eyeing another hit?

CEBU CITY — Four days after making half-a-million pesos holding up a bank, a notorious robber sent police into a fresh alert for a possible new heist the other day after he was identified as the one who stole a motorbike in Lahug.

Rey Torres was identified by "habal-habal" driver Loloy Espinili as the man who nearly killed him when he resisted giving up his bike.

Espinili was waiting for passengers at the JY Square Mall in Lahug when Torres and another man he would later identify as Ricardo Uy, came and asked to be taken to the Taoist temple in Beverly Hills.

Espinili said he remembered the faces of the two because they first haggled over the fare.

Eventually, Espinili agreed to take them at half the normal fare of P20 per person.

A short distance from the temple, Torres asked Espinili to stop, but as the driver did so, Torres suddenly pulled out a caliber .45 pistol and aimed it at his head.

Espinili froze, but when Torres demanded that he go and leave the motorcycle, he suddenly remembered that his brother got the 125 cc Honda XRM motorcycle on loan only a month ago. So he made a sudden lunge for the gun and they grappled for its possession.

In the course of the struggle, Torres managed to free the hand holding the gun and pressed the trigger. Luckily, the struggle made him miss a deadlier aim and the bullet only grazed Espinili on the back. Torres managed to fire again, but the shot was wilder than the first.

Eventually, Uy, who did not take part in the struggle, decided to grab the fallen motorbike and start it. At this juncture, Torres himself decided it was the better thing to do and pushed Espinili away. He jumped on board and they took off in the direction of Capitol Site, Torres continuing to fire shots and missing.

Espinili ran toward the temple and sought the help of a guard who immediately called the police. The commotion also attracted other "habal-habal" drivers who gave chase but to no avail.

When police came, Espinili picked out Torres without hesitation from a bunch of photos which the law enforcers showed him.

He also picked out the man whom police later identified as Uy. As it turned out, Uy is the primary suspect in a P2-million robbery in a department store in 2002.

Cebu City police chief Melvin Gayotin said he now believes Torres has joined up with other groups such as Uy’s and that something big could be in the offing.

Gayotin said the acquisition of hard-to-trace stolen vehicles such as motorcycles could be an indication that the gang could be planning another job.

Torres is believed to be the mastermind behind last Monday’s heist in an East-West Bank branch where the robbers took half-a-million pesos. — Freeman News Service