Cop one of suspects in robbery of DSWD employees

MANILA, Philippines—Never ever talk about big amounts of money in a drinking session, even if you’re drinking with a police officer.

Authorities nabbed two persons, one of them a policeman, for robbing two employees of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Region 8 or the Eastern Visayas region of P8 million Monday, police said Tuesday.

Director Samuel Pagdilao Jr., chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said their operatives from Region 8 arrested Police Officer 3 Arnulfo Boco of Ormoc City police and a man identified as Johnny Agcang Monday. They were both tagged as suspects by the driver of the Mazda pick-up owned by the DSWD Region 8 where they robbed the department’s employee Costino Goco and Management Division chief Vilma Aguilar.

Boco denied participation in the robbery at first but later admitted and even led the police to a house in Sagkahan BLISS in Tacloban City where he left his share of the loot amounting to P3,800,000 (three million and eight hundred thousand pesos).

Agcang was nabbed in his home in Ormoc City before dawn Tuesday, said Pagdilao. Authorities recovered a loaded .45-caliber Colt Mark IV, P30,000, and a Honda Wave motorcycle, the getaway vehicle the suspects used in the robbery.

CIDG Region 8 chief, Superintendent Mafelino Bazar said the victims were riding the government vehicle when they were held-up by three suspects along Maharlika Highway in Caibaan, Tacloban City Monday morning.

Pagdilao said that Goco admitted to joining Boco and two others in a drinking session wherein he divulged information about the money he was to transport for distribution to indigenous persons in various areas in the region. Goco however denied that they planned a robbery that night.

Goco also admitted to recognizing the suspects but said that he did not immediately tell police that he knew the suspects because he feared for his life.