Police identify suspects in Greenbelt 5 heist

The police identified Thursday morning the members of the robbery group involved in last Sunday’s heist at a Rolex store in Greenbelt 5 in Makati City.

QTV 11's Balitanghali reported that the Southern Police District (SPD) confirmed that the Alvin Flores group was responsible for the robbery that resulted in a shootout, killing one of six suspects. The report said that SPD operatives are now hunting down Alvin Flores a.k.a. “Bunso," Lester Maceda, Engr. Dave Maceda, Roland dela Cruz, and Walter Mutya. Meanwhile, the remains of Armando Domingo, the suspect who was killed in the shootout, are still at the Funeraria Victoria in Pasay City. “Police operations are ongoing against the suspects and we hope we can do arrests soon, with the help of those who might have information about them (robbers)," said SPD head C/Supt. Jaime Calungsud in a press conference at the SPD headquarters in Quezon City. The SPD confirmed that Domingo was a former member of the New People’s Army operating in the provinces of Isabela ang Cagayan, the report said. According to the report, the SPD claimed that Domingo surrendered to the military and later became a militiaman, after which he got involved in crime groups. Balitanghali cited an initial police investigation result showing that the grenade launcher the robbers used turned out to be a toy gun, and that the cars the gang used were not stolen but with "open" deeds of sale. Also, it said that the SPD would investigate some security guards of the Greenbelt 5 and would subject some of them to polygraph tests. It said that the SPD is still waiting for the report on the inventory of the Rolex Watch store to determine the exact amount in watches the robbers spirited away.
Half-million booty The Philippine National Police (PNP) has recommended a P500,000 bounty for the neutralization of the gang’s leader Alvin Flores. Director General Jesus Verzosa, PNP chief, said they have already forwarded the recommendation of giving reward for the capture of Flores to the Department of the Interior and Local Government-PNP reward system for most wanted persons. “I have also directed the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to launch special operations to assist NCRPO (National Capital Region Police Office) in manhunt operations for Alvin Flores and his group," said Verzosa. Verzosa claimed members of Flores’ group use police uniforms, particularly the black uniform of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) and the Bomb Squad Unit, in their capers. The police tagged the group as responsible for the daring robbery at the Waltermart supermarket in Quezon City recently. Among the operations the group had successfully undertaken are the robbery of two Automated Teller Machines (ATM) and warehouse heists in several parts in Metro Manila. These have prompted the PNP leadership to ban the use of the black SWAT and Bomb Squad uniforms. The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has started mobilizing its intelligence network in the communities and reviewing its database of criminal personalities to locate Alvin Flores, said Senior Superintendent Leonardo Espina, PNP spokesman. “The CIDG operatives are now checking hospitals and medical clinics in Metro Manila, Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon to possibly trace a member of the Alvin Flores Group who was believed to be wounded in the Greenbelt 5 robbery," said Espina. During the Greenbelt heist, two police escorts of Taguig City Mayor Freddie Tiñga shot dead one of the robbers and injured another one. The slain robber was traced to be a resident of Isabela province. “They (CIDG investigators) are also reviewing video footages taken by CCTV monitors inside Greenbelt 5 and those taken in previous robbery incidents perpetrated by the Alvin Flores Group," the official said. - GMANews.TV