ILOILO CITY — A former world boxing champion with a string of criminal cases was identified as one of two robbers who held up a woman inside a jeepney in Leganes town in Iloilo on Saturday, another story of a ring champion who has been forgotten and gone wayward.
One of the suspected robbers turned out to be former world boxing champion William Magahin, according to police.
Magahin’s plight had previously drawn attention from the boxing industry and sports circles on the lack of support for former Filipino titlists and athletes who had brought honor to the country.
Magahin, 42, a former World Boxing Federation (WBF) welterweight champion, was detained at the Leganes police station after police found in his possession the stolen belongings of the passenger minutes after the robbery.
The former boxing champion, known in the ring as “The Black Mamba,” denied he was an accomplice in the robbery and claimed he ran after the robber.
But police said he was identified by the victim, Rosalinda Barona, as among the robbers.
“The victim’s bag, along with two wallets, a digital camera and cash, was with him when he was arrested,” said PO3 Mars Heso, the chief investigator of the Leganes police station.
Barona told investigators that she was in a jeepney with two other passengers, later identified as Magahin and Jonathan Edrosolano. Edrosolano then poked a knife at her and grabbed her bag past 2 a.m. near the Buntatala Bridge in Jaro district in Iloilo City.
While they were grappling with the bag, Magahin allegedly told her to stop struggling with Edrosolano. The former boxing champion also got off the jeepney moments after Edrosolano fled. Policemen arrested Magahin around 4 a.m. along the national highway, a few kilometers from where the victim was robbed.
Edrosolano was arrested around 6 a.m. in barangay Tagbac in Jaro district. He admitted that he and Magahin were involved in the robbery, Heso said.
Police are preparing to file robbery charges against the suspects.
Magahin won the WBF title on March 25, 1995, after he defeated Jeff Malcolm of Australia. He lost the crown to Suwito Lagola in Sumatra on October 21 of the same year but later regained it after Lagola failed to make a mandatory defense. /INQUIRER