2 suspects in break-in at Sonny Parsons’ home deny wrongdoing

MANILA, Philippines — The two men accused of breaking into the house of former actor Sonny Parsons in Marikina and robbing him on Wednesday have denied any wrongdoing, saying they were only in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Senior Supt. Vincent Calanoga, the city’s chief of police, said Rey Vergara, 32, of Pasig, and Angelo Chua, 26, of Barangay Sto. Niño, claimed they were merely walking near Parsons’ house on Bronze St., SSS Village in Barangay Concepcion at 5 a.m., around the time of the robbery, after their motorcycle broke down.

“But a witness, a neighbor, said that he saw the two suspects trying to open the main door (of Parson’s house) and enter,” Calanoga said.

Senior Insp. Eduardo Cayetano, the city’s chief investigator, said the suspects did not get very far because as as soon as they got out of the bungalow after “less than five minutes” inside, concerned citizens and responding policeman and barangay security personnel who had been alerted by the neighbor, immediately arrested them.

Cayetano said the police later recovered a Samsung phone worth P10,000 identified as Parsons’.

“We did not recover any tools (to open the door of the house) from them but according to the witness, the two suspects helped each other in opening the main door,” he said.

Calanoga said it was unclear if anything other than the cell phone was missing from Parsons’ house as the latter had yet to issue a statement on missing items.

According to the police official, the suspects underwent inquest proceedings on the same day for robbery.

He said the two, while denying they had committed any crime, sought the forgiveness of Parsons.

“I’m not sure what happened after that but so far, they are not off the hook,” he said, adding that they were detained at the Marikina City Police headquarters.

Calanoga said this was the third time that someone broke into the house of Parson, or Jose Nabiula, 37, in real life.  Parson also shot to fame as a member of the former band Hagibis.

The first break-in, he said, was in 2002, when two of the six robbers who also took his family hostage were shot dead by Parsons himself.

Parsons was given a certificate of appreciation for that feat.

The second time was in 2003.

Calanoga said there was no information if Wednesday’s suspects had any connection to the previous break-in at Parson’s place.  SFM