Suspected female accomplice in bank rob denies involvement

ILOILO CITY, Philippines – With all the evidences and testimonies against her, the female suspected accomplice in the EastWest Bank robbery went to the Regional Police Office-6 to insist that she was innocent of the crime.

Rose Aina Sarmiento, 36, of Brgy. Liboo, Dingle, Iloilo personally went to see PRO-6 director, Chief Supt. Cipriano Querol Jr., yesterday and professed that she has not participated, directly or indirectly, in the January 3 bank robbery.

Sarmiento was tagged as the woman who asked bank security guard Lony Pablico for help in using the ATM.

She told Querol that she just arrived from the school of her child at around 2 p.m. on Tuesday when her younger sister sent her a text message informing her that her name was all over the airwaves.

“I asked her what was it all about, and she replied that it was about the bank robbery,” she said.

She then contacted a local radio network to ask about the incident. It was then that she knew that she was charged for robbery in band and frustrated homicide, along with two identified suspects and five John Does.

Besides claiming innocence, Sarmiento questioned the process of the filing of charges. She told Querol that the police should have contacted her first before filing the charges, and this time the implication caused shame to her family, especially her five children who she is raising alone.

“Now my reputation is damaged. If indeed justice prevails, they should have informed me first,” she said, while questioning Querol on the police’s bases in the filing of case.

She hoped that this accusation was not an act of witch-hunting, as she cited the case of Isidra Ladesma who was earlier accused to be the woman accomplice in that same robbery, but was later released after no charges were filed against her.

Querol, however, maintained the police did not err in the filing of charges against Sarmiento. “During the investigation process, we don’t go to a suspect and tell him or her that she will be charged in court,” he said.

He also told Sarmiento there were evidences and testimonies pointing to her as the suspect. “Before we filed the case at the Iloilo City Prosecutors’ Office, we had the case folder evaluated by the bank’s legal counsels,” he added.

If indeed Sarmiento is innocent, Querol said that she will have her time to answer it in court. “Just because you tell us that you’re innocent, we should withdraw the charges against you,” Querol told Sarmiento.

Reports had it that her family was first dragged into the crime limelight in 2002 when her husband, Ronald, was implicated in the controversial Jefferson Tan kidnap-for-ransom case. While the case was already resolved and some of the arrested suspects were already found guilty of the charges, Ronald remains still at large.

There were reports also implicating Rose Aina to a bank robbery in Quezon City in 2000 and on the robbery of a delivery van in Dueñas town, Iloilo where P100,000 was taken by the suspects. Reports also claimed that she was the owner of a motorcycle allegedly used in a robbery incident.