AUTHORITIES were able to catch up with the fleeing gunmen who staged a daring, broad daylight jewelry shop robbery here but released them because of a mix-up on the information of the plate number of the getaway vehicle, a silver grey Toyota Wigo.
Police here said the owner of the Toyota Wigo, a businessman from Bonifacio town in Misamis Occidental, surrendered the vehicle last Sunday after pictures of it were posted on social media.
Police Colonel Salvador Radam, newly-installed chief of the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office said they have filed criminal cases against the six gunmen who robbed Gold Mega Jewelry Store along J. R. Borja Street here last August 2.
“We believed that there were at least four more who acted as lookouts. We want to be sure before including them in the criminal cases we have filed,” Radam told a security briefing organized by councilors and businessmen here last Thursday.
Police said the robbers took P9 million worth of jewelry by firing gunshots at the scared store personnel injuring a 57-year-old worker.
Police spokesman Colonel Evan Viñas said after staging the robbery, the suspects went to the Rotunda in Barangay Nazareth where the Toyota Wigo was waiting for them.
Viñas said the group then proceeded to the bridge in Puntod where a police mobile checkpoint was set up immediately after the alarm was sounded.
“There was confusion (about) the car plate numbers. The letters did not match with the information provided by the witnesses,” Viñas said.
Radam said responding policemen flagged down the robbers in their get-away car, a silver gray Toyota Wigo, on the bridge between barangays Puntod and Kauswagan minutes, as the six armed men who just staged a robbery on a jewelry store made their getaway.
He said the policemen allowed the suspects to leave because the letters of the plate numbers did not match the description given by the witnesses although the numbers did match.
“The color and the car model matched the description given by the witnesses. We are conducting an investigation into why the policemen did not hold the vehicle and the occupants,” Radam told a security briefing organized by businessmen and city councilors here Thursday.
Radam said the gunmen continued their getaway until they came to a checkpoint in the borders of Cagayan de Oro and Opol municipality. He said the car was allowed to pass through again.
The daylight robbery occurred after the police went on high alert as the city government launched the Higalaay Festival, a month of festivities leading up to the August 28 celebration of the Feast of Saint Augustine, Cagayan de Oro’s patron saint.
Radam said more than 150 policemen from the city police force of 800 men were deployed at the launching of the Higalaay 2023 Festival Grand Launching in Rio de Boulevard here last August 1, the eve of the armed robbery of Gold Mega Jewelry Store.
He said most of the police stayed up till the wee hours of the morning securing peace and order at the venue where a street party was held.
Radam said the policemen were drawn from the ten police precincts of the city police office including those assigned in the general vicinity of the Gold Mega Jewelry Store
He said he relieved Police Major Julius Saluta, commander of police Precinct 2, which covers the area of the jewelry store.
Councilor Edgar Cabanlas, chair of the City Council on subdivision and landed estate said the robbers could have gotten this information and took advantage of the situation.
“The suspects knew there would be no police visibility that morning and have taken advantage to stage the robbery,” Cabanlas said.
Local businessman Ruben Vegafria said local businessmen are watching closely how the police would handle the investigation.
“We are deeply disturbed by this incident. Many people are concerned, and the local business community is alarmed,” Councilor George Goking, the chairman of the city council’s trade and commerce committee said.
Goking said his office is swamped by text messages from local traders who were alarmed by the brazenness of the armed robbery.
“The public expected the police to do better than this,” he said.
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