In one minute and 15 seconds, about P1 million in jewelry were gone after five armed men and a woman, believed to be members of the Ozamis robbery group, robbed a pawnshop at downtown Bacolod at about 9 a.m. Saturday.

A closed circuit television camera showed that the suspects entered the F & C Pawnshop and Jewelry Store through its front and back doors and immediately disarmed guards Rommy Abol and Federico Defensor of the Counterpoint Security Agency, city police officer-in-charge, Senior Supt. Edgardo Ordaniel, said yesterday.

They then ordered the guards and the five pawnshop employees to lay face down on the floor, smashed the glass of the display cabinets with tire ranges and tube pipes, gathered the jewelry, and escaped on board a maroon Nissan Escapade van, Ordaniel said.

Aside from the .38 caliber revolvers of Defensor and Abol, the suspects also took the .38 caliber revolver of the security guard of the nearby Golden Pawnshop and Jewelry Store, when he tried to help his colleagues.

The rented van was later recovered near the old city slaughterhouse in Brgy. 36, where the driver, Rolan Tambasen, 45, of Purok Sunflower, Brgy. Taculing, was found hogtied with his face covered with packing tape.

Police investigation showed a certain James Santos Gonzales of Cubao, Quezon City, got on the van driven by Tambasen and owned by the Voyage San Soucis at RBM Building Door in Brgy. Singcang-Airport, about 30 minutes before the robbery.

Tambasen said there were five passengers, including Gonzales, on the van and when they were in front of a hotel at Araneta Street, one of the suspects took over the vehicle, while the others wrapped his face with packing tape, hogtied him and placed him on the back seat.

They stopped twice along the way and several other persons boarded the van, Tambasen said.

Ordaniel said they are still investigating Tambasen and have sent the packing tape wrapped around his face to the Philippine National Police crime laboratory for possible latent prints.

Witnesses claimed the suspects boarded a black Chevrolet suburban and motorcycles after abandoning the van.

Four of the six suspects had already been identified by the police yesterday, but Ordaniel refused to give their names while charges were being readied against them.

INTEL CHIEF RELIEVED

For his failure to detect the presence of the Ozamis robbery group in Bacolod, Ordaniel relieved Intelligence Branch chief, Senior Insp. Jose Mulleta, and replaced him with Insp. Mark Jungco.

Ordaniel said Mulleta had told him two weeks ago that they validated the report of the alleged presence of the Ozamis group in Bacolod but it turned out to be negative.

He said that last Thursday, they received information the group was eyeing to rob a bank at a mall in Bacolod, and two of their members were captured on a CCTV camera falling in line at a teller’s booth.

Ordaniel said the group failed to carry out their plan because the bank management was able to seek police help, which was probably why they robbed F&C Pawnshop and Jewelry Store, instead.

The Ozamis group is believed to be behind the P3.6 million heist at the Central Negros Electric Cooperative, and the ransacking of Prenda Negrense and Jewelry store about four weeks ago.

A vendor, who witnessed the robbery, told the DAILY STAR it took the police about 15 minutes to respond to the incident.

Ordaniel said the operator of the BCPO radio room misinformed the Station 1 policemen, causing them to go to a different pawnshop.

However, he said they consider it as blessing because if the policemen arrived on time, there could have been an exchange of fire, that could result to casualties.

The vendor said that, aside from the suspects who entered the pawnshop, she saw about 10 men with long firearms manning the traffic and serving as look-outs.

A Special Investigation Task Group, headed by Ordaniel, and composed of Supt. Santiago Rapiz as spokesperson, with personnel from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, BCPO Intelligence and Investigation branches, and the Philippine National Police crime lab, was formed to swiftly resolve the case.*APN