CEBU CITY -- Aside from robbery suspect Dionisio Cabatingan or Junjun Cabando, there were three more suspects who escaped after the robbery last Monday in a Cebu City mall's basement, the police said.
Cebu City Police Director Melvin Ramon Buenafe, citing reports from police offices in Mindanao, said the three accomplices brought a vehicle to Cebu, in time for the robbery.
But when the shooting started, they immediately escaped, said Buenafe.
These suspects are known only by their aliases: “Buljack” and “John Paul” from Cagayan de Oro City, and “Kambal Legaspi” from Ozamiz City.
Buenafe said these three were with Cabando, Antonio Adelan, Mario Dapitan and Melecio Quiapo when they shot bank teller Lewin Surig of Chinabank and grabbed a bag with P1.2 million.
They then shot and killed two security guards of Puritan Agency, who escorted the bank teller in an armored car to the Robinsons Place mall.
“Even if these (three other) suspects did not participate in the crime, if they played their part in planning for the crime, they will also be arrested,” said Buenafe.
He also received reports the three men are now hiding in Mindanao.
Search clinics
“We are getting support from Mindanao (teams) who will be searching for them. Basta now our focus is to find Cabando,” he added.
The Cebu City police chief has ordered the police to check all public and private clinics in Metro Cebu.
“If doctors have treated Cabando, it is okay because it is their job, as long as they will inform us after. They will only be held liable if they help Cabando escaped,” said Buenafe.
He also ordered to monitor all pension houses in Cebu where Cabando possibly stayed.
However, Buenafe did not discount the possibility that Cabando might be dead now because of the gunshot wound in his buttocks.
“He was shot using an M16 rifle. Deadly ang igo ani nga kind nga pusil (A shot from such a firearm can be deadly), especially that he did not have immediate medical treatment,” he said.
Witnesses who spotted Cabando in Compostela town said he was very pale and had difficulty walking.
“We need the participation of the whole community in Cebu to report immediately any information about Cabando,” Buenafe said.
Buenafe presented on Wednesday the evidences recovered at the crime scene. Two .45 pistols with six magazines and a .38 revolver were seized from the suspects.
Firepower
Two motorcycles used as getaway vehicles were also found by the police. A pair of bloodstained jeans, with a hole at the back, was also taken from the house of the principal suspect's live-in partner, along with a mat and other bloodstained clothes.
Also presented Wednesday was the M16 rifle that PO1 Ray Ceniza used, including the shotguns with live bullets of slain security escorts Leofar Etac and Lito Odac.
A social networking site has yielded some clues.
Cabando once used the action movie star Victor Neri's image as the profile picture on his Facebook account.
“June Cabatingan” was the name Cabando used in the social networking site, but police said they are same person.
In the photo album "Holiday wd my wife," Cabando had a vague exchange with a certain Joel Caparoso about Neri.
“Idol mana nako imong profile brod hehehe (Your profile picture is my idol),” Caparoso commented last Sept. 15, 2010.
Changed image
“Pareha jud ta brod. Change profile sa ta ani kay init pa kaau ron (We have the same hero. I changed mine because it’s too hot right now)!” Cabando replied 19 days later.
After the shootout with the cops outside Robinsons Place, Cabando was hit in his butt. He boarded a taxi and fled toward Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City.
After his wound was dressed by a nursing graduate, he fled toward Compostela with his live-in partner's sister.
Personnel of the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) apprehended the woman in a beach resort in Liloan, an adjacent town of Compostela.
Police observed that Cabando tried to hide his identity, even on his Facebook account. His photos in the album, "Myself Juncabz," were nothing but that of a steel bridge and river between ravines.
But his hiding was not enough. Chief Insp. Bonifacio Garciano said they were able to obtain Cabando's picture after the suspect's female neighbor in Subangdaku volunteered to open her account.
As of last night, Cabando, dead or alive, was not yet found. (JBT/KAL/Sun.Star Cebu)
