‘Front’ of burrowing burglars named

The Manila Police District (MPD) released on Saturday a picture of the woman suspected of acting as a “front” for a group of burrowing burglars who early this month stole more than P500,000 worth of jewelry and cash from a pawnshop in Manila.

SPO1 Carlos Garcia, of the MPD theft and robbery section, identified the group’s front as Diana Perez, who also goes by aliases “Marilou” and “Daisy.”

Garcia said Perez was charged before the city prosecutor’s office with robbery after she was identified by witnesses as the person who leased last month a commercial stall from where the burrowing burglars dug their way through to the Sangalang Pawnshop along Old Sta. Mesa Street in Sta. Mesa.

The robbery was discovered at around 8:30 a.m. of Nov. 2, when an employee of the pawnshop reported for work after the long Halloween weekend.

Investigation showed the robbers got into the pawnshop through a tunnel dug on the ground and emptied the vault of P25,000 in cash and jewelry worth P500,000.

The other end of the tunnel was found inside a commercial stall, four houses apart, owned by Norman de Guzman.

Garcia revealed that apart from Perez, her alleged accomplices: James Pongdad, alias “Dexter,” of Caloocan City; Joel Padayao; and a still unidentified cohort were also charged before the city prosecutor’s office for the pawnshop robbery.

The case investigator told the Inquirer that the three were picked out by the witnesses off a rogue’s gallery of the Caloocan City police.

“The three were previously arrested for robbery by the Caloocan City police, sometime in 2005 or 2006,” Garcia pointed out.

The owner of the commercial stall, he said, identified Perez as the same woman who leased the stall on Oct. 13 paying P30,000 for the required one month deposit and one month advance rental. De Guzman claimed that he was told that the tenants were planning to set up a rice retail outlet.

Garcia told the Inquirer that the burglars used the woman as a front to avert suspicion and that it was part of the group’s mode of operation.  After renting the stall, he pointed out, the suspects apparently planned and worked in two weeks, from the time they rented the stall, to burrow through to the pawnshop.