Gunmen seize P7.6-M jewelry in Pagadian City highway robbery

ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Police launched a manhunt to find four gunmen behind Monday’s highway robbery involving PHP7.6-million worth of jewelry and other valuables in Pagadian City, capital Zamboanga del Sur.

Chief Supt. Edwin de Ocampo, deputy regional director for administration of Police Regional Office 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula), said Tuesday one of the four suspects, Jessie Macasilang alias Marines, was identified through a closed-circuit television camera video footage.

Macasilang and his cohorts carted away some PHP7.6-million worth of jewelry and other valuables from an ML Lhuiller branch in Barangay Tiguma, Pagadian City at about 8:21 a.m. Monday. ML Lhuiller operates a chain of pawnshops in the country.

De Ocampo said Macasilang eluded arrest when policemen raided the suspect’s hideout in a thickly-vegetated area in Barangay Manga, Tangub City, Misamis Occidental at about 9:45 a.m. Tuesday.

Macasilang has two standing warrants of arrest for the crime of robbery issued by a Parañaque City court, the police official said.

The jewelry were being transported on board ML Lhuiller’s sports utility vehicle (SUV), driven by Renante Ronolo, 28, and was accompanied by Addis Cortez, 54, from the firm’s outlet to the airport of Pagadian City at the time of the incident.

Police said the incident was witnessed by the regional manager of ML Lhuiller, who was on another vehicle tailing the SUV.

The suspects fled north from the place of the incident on board an SUV with registered plate number AEB-7356. (PNA)