Parañaque cops nab suspect in ‘gotohan’ robbery

Senior Supt. Leon Victor Rosete, Parañaque police chief, shows reporters a photo of suspect Jesrell Arador. (Photo by DEXTER CABALZA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Police arrested on Saturday afternoon of one of the four suspects in a recent robbery in a “gotohan” (porriddge shop) in Parañaque.

Senior Supt. Leon Victor Rosete, Parañaque police chief, identified the suspect as Jesrell Arador, alias Budoy, a 31-year-old resident of Hontiveros Compound in Barangay San Antonio.

Rosete said Arador is currently confined at an undisclosed hospital after he fractured his right arm.

The suspect reportedly injured himself after jumping from the second floor of a shanty near his house as he tried to escape arrest at 3:40 p.m. Saturday.

Seized from Arador was a .38-caliber revolver loaded with five rounds of ammunition, which would be subject to ballistic examinations.

The police chief said one of the victims identified Arador as they made their escape after a robbery on Jan. 4 at around 2:30 a.m. at a porridge shop on Dr. A. Santos Avenue in Barangay San Isidro.

Four men wearing helmets pointed guns at the customers and stole their cellphones and income of the establishment amounting to P40,000.

One of the customers, Anecito Manalo, 32, was hurt after he was shot by one of the robbers in the left leg.

Rosete said Arador denied the allegations.

But the police will file a complaint of robbery with serious physical injury and illegal possession of a firearm against the suspect.

According to the Parañaque police chief, Arador has been known to be a small-time robber also involved in illegal drugs.

He said Arador was detained last year for a violation of the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act (Republic Act No. 9262).

Director Oscar Albayalde, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office, ordered Rosete on Friday to solve the case within two days or he would be relieved from his post.

Rosete said he took Albayalde’s words as a “challenge,” noting that Parañaque police were conducting continuous manhunt operations against the other suspects, who had already been identified. /atm