Cops hunt wounded robber

Police yesterday found bloodied bandages in two hideouts of robbery suspect Junjun Cabando in Mandaue City and Compostela town, but no trace of the Ozamiz gang member.

Badly wounded with a gunshot in the buttocks, Cabando, 37,  remained at large a day after a foiled armored van heist in Robinsons Place, where three of his cohorts were shot dead.

He was seen leaving both residences with his girlfriend Merly Lagitao in a taxi.

“He was very pale and in pain,” said Maricel, Merly’s sister,  when the suspect showed up 11 a.m., about two hours after the shoot-out with policemen outside the supermarket in Fuente Osmeña.

“He can’t travel far because he was bleeding,” she said, adding that the couple mentioned they would go home to Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental province.

Cebu City police took Maricel Magadan into custody for questioning, said Chief Insp. Romeo Santander, head of the City Intelligence Branch.

Maricel earlier accompanied the couple from Mandaue City farther north to another house in Guianon, Composetla town, where the fugitive and his live-in partner eventually disappeared.

“She is not a suspect. She is under our custody because she needs police protection from people who are mad at her,”  said Cebu City Police Chief Melvin Buenafe.

Buenafe said  police established that Cabando was in Cebu for about one month before the robbery while his cohorts arrived last Sunday.

Santander said the robbery gang may be a breakaway from the Kuratong Baleleng robbery gang in Mindanao.

The heist took place past 9 a.m. shortly after the supermarket and mall opened on Monday.

Armed robbers waited for the arrival of an armored van and held up a bank teller as he delivered a bag of P1.2-million cash to a money changer outlet in the basement of Robinsons Place.

Operatives of City Intelligence Branch (CIB) and other police units raided both houses by Monday evening.

Cabando had used to live in Guianon, Compostela town, as a  boy until high school, said police.  When law enforcers searched the house, they again found bloodstained bandages.

Three suspected robbers who had had fled on motorbikes were gunned down blocks from the mall.

The third slain man was identified yesterday as Melencio Quiapo of Ozamiz, whom police said was the group leader. Two others, Mario Dapitan and Antonio Adelan, were identified by ID cards in their clothes.

Police said Quaipo was also involved in a robbery of Banco de Oro on May 21 and an LBC robbery on Sept. 2 in Kalubihan, Leyte.

Two policemen who were shot and wounded trying to stop the robbers were given medals yesterday as they lay in their hospital beds in Chong Hua Hospital.

The Medalya ng Sugatang Magiting,  which is given to policemen wounded in the line of duty, was pinned on  Mobile Mobile Group (MPG) PO1 Elrich Jourdin “Jay” Catacutan and PO1 Roy Ceniza.

Their patrol car happened to pass by the Robinsons mall when gunshots erupted from the basement, prompting the policemen.

The medals were awarded by Chief Supt. Ager Ontog Jr., chief of Police Regional Office (RPO-7) Senior Supt. Melvin Ramon Buenafe and  Senior Supt. Louie Oppus.