The Doce Pares robbery gang struck anew Saturday, this time taking P540,000 in payroll money in Cainta, Rizal.
The victims, Ruben Rodriguez, 32, Rolando Manozo, 28, and Reneo Baja, 34, positively identified the gang leader, former PO2 Joel Tapec, as one of the four suspects who robbed them.
Rodriguez is the payroll clerk of the Izumi Garment factory in Pasig City while Manozo and Baja are the driver and helper, respectively.
Superintendent Norberto Solomon, Cainta police chief said the trio has just withdrawn the money from a local bank. They where on their way back to the office in Pasig City on board a Mitsubishi L-300 van when the suspects blocked their path at about 9:30 a.m. along Eastbank Road, San Francisco chapter, Manggahan, Barangay San Juan. At gunpoint, the suspects, riding in tandem on a green and black motorcycle grabbed the attaché case containing the cash.
The suspects fled towards an unknown direction but not before firing their guns in the air apparently to prevent bystanders from pursuing them.
Solomon presented their file of rogue gallery to the victims because the modus operandi deployed by the suspects was the same of the Doce Pares gang.
The trio positively identified Tapec.
The Doce Pares gang was responsible for the rash of robberies in eastern Metro Manila and Rizal province, said Senior Superintendent Leon Nilo de la Cruz, director of the Eastern Police District. “The past few days alone, they pulled two robberies in the EPD area and the victims have just withdrawn cash from a bank,” said De la Cruz.
The Doce Pares gang gained notoriety two years ago when they killed an 11-month-old baby girl during a robbery also in Cainta town.
Three of the gang’s active policemen members were arrested and subsequently jailed in the Cainta jail.