Robbery pits Japanese vs Japanese

A Japanese national landed in jail for allegedly robbing his Japanese business partner of 1.4 million yen or the equivalent of half a million pesos earlier this week in Quezon City.

Tomoyuki Oyakawa, 42, was arrested at his house in Barangay (village) Mayamot, Antipolo City, Wednesday afternoon on a complaint from Koji Sato, 61, a native of Shizuoka prefecture in Japan.

The suspect—along with another Japanese national and two Filipinos—allegedly held up the victim just outside Ali Mall in Cubao on Tuesday while they were all inside a Kia van.

Oyakawa and his cohorts held Sato at gunpoint when they took his clutch bag containing cash, according to the complaint.

PO2 Romeo Nino II of the Quezon City Police District identified the other suspects as Kimura Nariyuki, Jesus Valera and Ethel Garcia, who remained at large.

QCPD theft and robbery section chief Insp. Alan dela Cruz said the suspect was a tourist who used to be one of Sato’s partners in a business dealing in heavy equipment, particularly wind turbine generators.

Valera’s name, meanwhile, earlier cropped up in police records as an alleged con artist preying on foreigners, Dela Cruz said.

The Japanese complainant said Oyakawa and the other suspects invited him to be their partners in December last year.

On different occasions, Sato said, he provided 49 wind turbine generators worth 11 million yen (P4 million) and 2.8 million yen in cash (P1 million) to Oyakawa as capital for their new company, which was supposedly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But in January, Sato became suspicious after Oyakawa asked for a million yen supposedly as payment for customs duties.

The complainant said he also learned that the address of the supposed consignee of the machines was an abandoned warehouse in Parañaque City.

On Tuesday morning, Sato set up a meeting with his business partners to discuss their problems. The suspects fetched him from a hotel in Ortigas Center, Pasig City, and brought him to Cubao.

During the ride, they broke into an argument until one of the Filipinos allegedly pointed a gun at Sato and grabbed his clutch bag.

The suspects then pushed Sato out of the van. He then filed a complaint in the QCPD with the help of a Filipino friend.

Oyakawa was arrested after the police conducted a 16-hour surveillance on his Antipolo City home.