'WE'LL GET THEM'
Noose tightens for suspects behind Dingle stick 'em ups

By Florence F. Hibionada

Charges are now being readied against members of the robbery group who recently went on a 'crime-spree' in the central town of Dingle.

Defensor

With five robbery incidents recorded in only a week, Supt. Cornelio Defensor, Deputy Director of the Iloilo Provincial Police Office (IPPO), said identities of the suspects have now been established. Additional information validated by the Dingle police points to locals residents as the likely culprits.

What remains to be pursued, Supt. Defensor told The News Today yesterday , are the accounts of witnesses alongside the testimonies of the victims. And there are more tips to be validated that could help identify other accomplices particularly the robbery of an L300 passenger van, Defensor added.

“We will get them. We already have a clearer picture of the entire scenario that occurred in Dingle,” Defensor vowed. “I met with Senior Insp. Jeoffrey Rusgal on the matter and instructed him what to do next. But we know who they are (suspects) and we are just hoping we would get the barangay officials and the victims to fully cooperate so the cases will be filed and prosper.”

Pressed for further details on the suspects' background and modus operandi, Defensor went on to categorize the group as members of a local crime group. He stressed though that these persons have no links to organized syndicates.

“Their operations are more on a random type with no known resources for mobilization or use of firearms,” he revealed.

The series of robbery cases began in May 3, hours after the shoot-out between Marine soldiers and member of the Philippine Army in Barangay Abangay.

Robbers on board a motorcycle divested a collector of a lending company of P3,000 cash. They fled towards the direction of Barangay Moroboro.

The next day, robbers held up the driver and a male companion of a delivery truck. Robbers went away with P27,000. Dingle police took into their custody one suspect.

Three robbery cases were again recorded five days later.

First to be reported was the mid-afternoon heist in Barangay Namatay where a collector was robbed of his personal money worth P1,500.

By 8:45 that evening, operatives began their pursuit of about six men believed to have held-up passengers of an L300 van. Initial police information gathered by The News Today disclosed that three suspects boarded the van in Barangay Tagbac in Jaro, Iloilo. They declared the hold-up in Barangay Libo-o, Dingle. A woman lost P40,000 cash to the robber, who were able to escape with P100,000.

Three hours later, barangay officials called for police back-up in pursuing four armed suspects who tried to cart away a carabao.

Governor Niel Tupas when reached by Capitol reporters for comment said that corresponding orders relative to the string of Dingle crimes have been issued.

Resolve the incidents, the governor said in radio interviews, as he disclosed that the police have already identified the suspects.