Police eyeing ‘Roger Palma’ members in robberies
The Iloilo Police Provincial Office said the two suspects in the spate of robbery incidents in the province in the last two weeks could belong to the notorious Roger Palma Group.
Senior Supt. Renato Gumban, officer-in-charge of IPPO, said their investigation led to the group, to which two of the six suspects in the Ceres Liner bus robbery last June 29 belong.
“We identified two suspects who are from Banate. They belong to the said group. But we have yet to identify the four other suspects,” he said.
Palma, once considered as Iloilo province’s most notorious criminal was the leader of the holdup group. He was killed after an encounter with authorities following his escape from the Iloilo Rehabilitation Center in January 3 this year at Brgy. Nasirum, about five kilometers from the town proper of Mina, Iloilo.
After the bus robbery more than a week ago, several other hold-up incidents occurred until Wednesday with taxi driver Romeo Jodillasin, whom the robbers killed, as the last victim.
The assailants stabbed the 65-year old Jodillasin at least 17 times and left his body in a sugarcane field in Barotac Viejo.
Gumban said he already instructed members of an interim force, created to probe the series of robbery incidents, to connect the holdup cases in the fourth and fifth districts of Iloilo.
PALMA’S END
The fatal end of Palma started after he escaped, along with two other prisoners, from the Iloilo Rehabilitation Center facility at Brgy. Nanga, Pototan town.
IRC personnel were oblivious to Palma’s escape until a tricycle driver complained to the Pototan Police Station that a five to six men took over his vehicle in front of the IRC early morning last January 3.
At the time of his death, Palma was facing several cases in different courts in Iloilo, including robbery, attempted highway robbery, illegal possession of firearm, and direct assault.
His other cases involved murder with the use of unlicensed firearm, robbery with violence and intimidation, and murder.
