No P2.5 M cash found from pawnshop robbery suspects

Two men suspected of robbing and shooting down a pawnshop teller in Toledo City last week were arrested outside their respective homes last Saturday afternoon.

But there was no trace of the P2.5 million the men supposedly robbed from teller Domingo del Pilar, who reportedly withdrew the money from the Toledo City branch of Metrobank near the M.Lhuillier pawnshop before the robbery occurred.

Pableto “Pabling” Napoles, was arrested outside his rented house in barangay Lutopan, Toledo City at 11:30am.

Three hours later, Tristan Purisima was caught outside his rented house in barangay Talavera, also in Toledo City.

Recovered from Napoles’s home were one .357 revolver, one .38 Smith and Wesson revolver, one hand grenade, one cell phone and a green hand bag inside.

Taken from Purisima’s rented house were one large and one medium sachets of a substance suspected to be shabu, one loaded .22 caliber revolver, one holster, one aluminum tin foil and a leather wallet.

Insp. Bonifacio U. Lucerna, deputy chief of the Toledo City police said a tipster informed them about the addresses of the suspects in last Friday’s robbery.

Del Pilar, a former overseas Filipino worker (OFW), was employed for three months prior to the robbery.

His wife is a branch manager of another M. Lhuiller branch. They have a one-month-old baby.

Del Pilar was declared dead on arrival at the Toledo City Hospital.

His two fellow tellers who were with him during the robbery were safe.

The P2.5 million was reportedly intended for last Saturday’s transactions at the pawnshop.

Lucerna said the suspects are natives of barangay Cantuod, Balamban town in Cebu.

He said the 33-year-old Napoles is the suspected gunman in the robbery that occurred along the national highway in barangay Poblacion, Toledo City.

Lucerna said Napoles, a drug user, was a member of a robbery group.

SPO1 Julius  Obañana of the Balamban police said Napoles and Dumdum were arrested for a robbery case and were detained in the Balamban police precinct last July.

“The bail was supposedly P200,000 each but they asked the court to reduce it to P100,000 each. They were released from jail in less than a month.”  Obañana said in Cebuano.

Lucerna said while they have yet to verify if the 30-year-old Purisima is in cahoots with Napoles during the robbery, his name was already placed in the police watchlist.

Lucerna told Cebu Daily News that they were unable to contact Nerissa Ulgazan, the branch manager of  the M.Lhuillier pawnshop to verify the amount of money stolen from their office.

“We checked the house of both suspects and there was no money. We were wondering why it was all over the news that the stolen amount was really P2.5 million.” Lucerna said.

Napoles, a former welder, denied involvement in last Friday’s robbery while Purisima, a casual laborer, admitted that he used to peddle drugs.

He said he came from a friend’s house at the time of his arrest.

Purisima said he was only dealing two medium packs of shabu, not one large and one medium packet of the drug.

Purisima also said he was about to pawn a friend’s gun to another friend when he was arrested.

“I was just in my younger sister’s house in Lutopan the whole day of Friday,” said Napoles.