Suspect in string of robberies in Tagum City yields

DAVAO CITY — Police on Wednesday said one of the suspects of a series of robberies in Tagum City, Davao del Norte last week had surrendered.

Fearing for his life, Peter Carlo Riña, 22, turned himself in to authorities late on Tuesday, a week after he and two others pulled off a string of robberies in a nine-hour span in four villages, Chief Insp. Milgrace Driz, Southern Mindanao police spokesperson.

Driz said Riña, a resident of Purok (Community) Ilocandia, Mankilam village, turned over to the Tagum City police station a blue Suzuki Raider motorcycle, a 12-gauge shotgun and a cash box they had looted from their victims.

Victims and witnesses identified the suspect as the one with a tattoo on the left arm caught in closed circuit television (CCTV) camera of the grocery they robbed past 5 a.m on Aug. 22.

The knife-wielding suspects first forcibly took the motorcycle of Jerry Magparo at Barangay Magugpo West shortly before 10 p.m. on Aug. 21.

Then at 10:49 p.m., they hit a spa in Barangay San Miguel, taking with them cash, cell phones and other gadgets from the cashier.

At 1:45 a.m. on Aug. 22, the suspects at knife-point, took the shotgun of security guard Melvin Vicente as the latter was manning his post at an inn along Dalisay Gante Road in Barangay Magugpo West.

Nearly four hours later, Riña’s group, now armed with knives and a shotgun, robbed the cashier of a budget hotel in Barangay Magugpo Poblacion, before hitting a grocery store in Visayan Village, several kilometers away, less than an hour after.

Driz said charges of violation of the anti-fencing law and illegal possession of firearms were being readied against Riña as follow-up operations against his companions were underway.