Pasig City police, QCPD release image of ‘Dugo-dugo’ suspect

The Pasig City Police and the QCPD show the image of the “Dugo-dugo” gang suspect in the P5.2-million theft.—Photo courtesy of QCPD

The Pasig City Police and the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) released on Friday a composite image of a suspected member of the “Dugo-dugo” gang who was allegedly involved in stealing P5.2 million worth of cash and jewelry from a resident of a posh village in Pasig City on Feb 6.

The image was released as police intensified the manhunt for still unidentified gang members responsible for three successive incidents in the city.

Dugo-dugo is a modus operandi wherein robbers call and ask maids to break into their masters’ room and take their valuables, saying their bosses “figured” in a vehicular accident and they needed money to pay hospital bills.

Instructions from ‘lawyer’

Pasig City Police chief Senior Supt. Orlando Yebra Jr. said the woman in the image was the one who met with the victim’s maid Shelamy Layno and took the stolen valuables in SM North Edsa-Annex in Quezon City.

The unidentified woman is around 45 to 48 years old based on Layno’s descriptions, Yebra said.

According to a report reaching the Eastern Police District, Layno claimed to have been instructed by her employer’s “lawyer” to destroy their cabinet and bring the valuables to the woman at SM North Edsa Annex.

The money, the “lawyer” said, would be used for the employer’s hospitalization after figuring in a vehicular accident, the report said.

No lawyer

But Layno’s employer has no lawyer. Layno, a native of Nueva Vizcaya, has been working as maid for more than a year.

QCPD’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit head Chief Insp. Rodelio Marcelo said SM provided a copy of the CCTV footage which was turned over to the Pasig City Police.

Identification of the suspects is still ongoing, Yebra said.