Neighbors, family clueless, say rob suspect ‘respectful’
With her friend asking for assistance, a 21-year-old nursing graduate didn’t think twice about helping robbery suspect Junjun Cabando.
Anna Marie Magadan, a resident of barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City, was attending to her child at noon when Cabando’s live-in partner Merlyn Laguitao knocked on her door and asked for medicine to help stop Cabando’s bleeding.
Cabando, one of four suspects in last Monday’s foiled robbery attempt of a money changer outlet in Robinsons Place basement in Fuente Osmeña, Cebu City, headed to Mandaue City after being wounded in the buttocks.
Anna Marie is the sister-in-law of Maricel Laguitao Magadan, Merlyn’s sister.
Maricel fetched Cabando and Merlyn upon their arrival in Cebu City last Saturday morning and let them stay in the house rented by her mother-in-law Marites Magadan.
Anna Marie said Merlyn invited her to their room and she saw a bleeding Cabando lying on their bed.
“Don’t tell anyone what happened to him,” she recalled Merlyn telling her at the time.
Anna Marie said she poured Tanduay rum on the wound and applied Betadine disinfectant.
She said she treated Cabando based on what she saw in the movies where characters used alcohol to treat their wounds.
She said she used towels to stop the bleeding, which wasn’t that serious.
After 30 minutes, Anna Marie left them and Cabando’s live-in-partner applied the dressing on the wound.
Anna Marie, the third of five siblings, said she didn’t want to be interviewed at first because she would still be taking the nursing board exam and didn’t want to jeopardize it.
“It’s my job as a nurse. I never thought he robbed somebody,” she said.
Annie Marie said she heard from neighbors that her sister-in-law Maricel borrowed P500 from their neighbor as taxi fare for her, Merlyn and Junjun.
She said she didn’t know where they were headed.
Maricel’s mother-in-law paid P5,000 a month in rent to George Velasquez, who, along with the Bermijo family, owned the compound that the Magadans live in.
George’s house was subdivided into four rooms, which they rent to outsiders.
Subangdaku tanod Leo Bermijo said the compound only has one entry and exit area.
He said they asked who Cabando was and they welcomed him when they were told that he was the live-in-partner of Maricel’s sister.
The 47-year-old Bermijo said only George’s house was rented.
Maricel’s neighbors also said they never suspected Cabando to be a robber since he treated them with respect.
Sixty-year-old Roberto Bermijo said he didn’t see any suspicous looking men going inside the compound.
“We knew all people going here including those that rent George’s house since there is only one entry and exit point,” Bermijo told Cebu Daily News in Cebuano yesterday.
He said Cabando invited him to join his male friends in a drinking spree last Saturday but he refused since he had something else to do.
Roberto said whenever Cabando passed by, he would invite him to eat.
Josephine Flormata, a 50-year-old compound resident who sells newspapers with her husband Rolly, said she asked about Cabando and Merlyn and didn’t suspect Cabando to be a robber.
She said she wants to clear the name of their compound after the robbery incident, saying she wants their area to be safe from criminal elements.
Rolly said he saw the taxi driver who drove Cabando to their compound pass by their newsstand after the robbery.
He said he heard the driver complain that Cabando soaked his seat in blood.
Rolly said he didn’t see Cabando get out of the taxi but he was told by neighbors who saw him get out of the vehicle followed by Maricel.
Maricel supposedly borrowed P500 for taxi fare from a neighbor.
The taxi driver reportedly didn’t know that Cabando was bleeding and cleaned his taxi near the newsstand.
Rolly said he didn’t know about the robbery at the time since they weren’t listening to the radio.
A woman neighbor who refused to be named said he saw Cabando standing at the wooden gate talking to someone over the cell phone after being treated by Anna Marie.
