A member of the Alvin Flores gang, tagged in the Rolex store robbery in Greenbelt 5, Makati City, was charged with robbery with homicide before the Makati Prosecutor’s Office yesterday afternoon.
Deputy Director for Intelligence Services lawyer Ruel Lasala, of the National Bureau of Investigation, said suspect Rene Batiencela was inquested also for heists at four warehouses in Pasig City, and the robbery attempt at the Pepsi Cola office in Manila.
Assistant City Prosecutor Lody Tancioco presided over the inquest proceedings.
Batiencela was arrested during the NBI operations at a resort in Cebu on Thursday which led to the killing of leader Alvin Flores and three others.
At Camp Crame, National Police Chief Jesus Verzosa said he has ordered the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to crush the gang in a combined effort with the Metro Manila Police, Region 1 district office, the intelligence group and the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response.
“They are now coordinating follow-up and neutralization of the members of the Alvin Flores group. Incidentally, we have arrested Dennis Serquina,” he told Crame reporters.
“We will be investigating his admission and the probable involvement of political personalities and elected officials.”
Verzosa declined to name the Pangasinan town mayor implicated by Serquina.
“Whoever in cahoots with these criminal elements would be charged. We are coordinating closely also with the National Bureau of Investigation because of the joint follow-up operations in Cebu that led to the demise of Alvin Flores,” Verzosa said.
Tracker teams have already been deployed to hunt down the remaining members of the gang as identified by the arrested and surrendered suspects.
Part of this is to also establish links of the gang with the Ozamiz robbery-holdup gang that would also possibly provide leads for the police to pursue.
“The initial estimate is around 30 members (having) linkages with the other groups,” Verzosa said.
He said Serquina and the surrendered alleged members of the gang were from Pangasinan.
Batiencela’s record shows that he also has an arrest warrant for illegal possession of firearms issued by Branch 51 Judge Alma Crispina Collado Lacorte of Caloocan City Metropolitan Trial Court.
Lawyer Ross Jonathan Galicia, of the NBI Task Force Against Armed Robbery, said Batienciela was a fisherman before joining the gang.
Galicia said the suspect admitted that there were two lookouts inside the mall (three at the entrance), three outside and one in the car.
Batiencela said slain member Armando Domingo was armed with a real rifle but his M203 grenade launcher was a replica.
He got P15,000 for the Rolex job but was not paid for the botched Pepsi Cola hit.
A bureau source, who refused to be named because he was not authorized to issue statements, said the gang had ready buyers for their loot even before they staged the robberies.
In 2008 alone, the source said, the group victimized 26 establishments across the country, and took expensive items and cash, mostly from safety vaults.
“They managed to dispose their loot even on the same day after they carried out their robbery. We are determining who are their ready buyers.”
NBI Director lawyer Nestor Mantaring said agents were combing localities suspected as hosts of the gang’s safehouses.
“Flores had so many sub- groups and each robbery was perpetrated by different sub-groups. But Flores led all the robberies. So each sub-group has different hideouts,” he said.
Mantaring said Alvin Flores had aliases “Bunso,” “Lester,” “Engineer Dave Maceda,” “Marvin Santos Yao,” and “Danilo Flores,” and resided at 41 Longos St., Malolos, Bulacan. Also killed by bureau agents in the shootout at Tripina Compound in Barangay Compostela on Oct. 29 were Flores’ right hand, Richie Gigante Hijapon alias “John Paul Cruz Monteverde,” of Dapdap, Kinatarkan, Santa Fe, Cebu; Marc Alejandro Bondoc Salamanca, alias “Joseph,” of Isabela; and Roger Sanchez, alias “Francisco Deladia y Bajo, also “Tulig” of Milaor, Camarines Sur. Macon Ramos-Araneta, Rudy Brul and Florante S. Solmerin
