Suspect Alexander Lumapak talks to reporters while in detention at the Mabolo Police Station.
/CDN photo/Junjie Mendoza
Neighbors who saw his picture on media reports tipped law enforcers of the whereabouts of Alexander Lumapak, the suspect on Sunday night’s Mabolo church burglary.
Lumapak, 21, did not resist arrest shortly before midnight on Tuesday, but he told police that he did not work alone.
He claimed that a certain “Marwin,” who already left for Mindanao, planned the burglary of around P400,000 in church donations.
The cash was kept inside a steel box which was under the custody of church worker Roxanne Valmoria.
Supt. Emelie Santos, chief of the Mabolo Police Station, said that Lumapak already spent close to half of the cash that he took to purchase a brand new motorcycle and flat-screen television among others.
Santos said that neighbors in Barangay Basak San Nicolas who saw Lumapak’s photo in television reports of the burglary reported to barangays tanods of his presence in a boarding house in their area.
Tanods were the ones who called the Mambaling police for assistance. Barangay Basak San Nicolas is under the jurisdiction of the Mambaling Police Station.
Mambaling police turned over Lumapak and his back pack containing P214,000 cash to the Mabolo police, which is handling the burglary case.
In an interview with reporters, Lumapak admitted that he prepared the sketch to guide Marwin of the location of the cash donations and acted as lookout during the burglary.
But he denied any hand in mauling Valmoria.
Lumapak claimed that he had been planning to surrender to the police already after he saw his photograph come out in television reports of the burglary, but he was stopped by Marwin, whom he claimed was armed with a handgun.
But when asked where Marwin was, Lumapak said that his friend already left for Mindanao.
The Samar native claimed that he was killing time at the Plaza Independencia a few days back when Marwin approached him and proposed that they break into the Mabolo church and steal cash donations.
“Ako niuyon kay nagproblema ko kay papahawaon naman gud ko sa akong gi-abangan na boarding house kay wala koy ika bayad (I agreed because I also needed cash to pay the rent of my boarding house which I haven’t paid yet, and I already risk being kicked out)” Lumapak said.
Marwin, he said, asked him to hide their loot underneath his bed.
His friend, Lumapak said, also advised him to look for another boarding house so he could move out of his old boarding house before they divide their loot.
Santos said they are still awaiting word from Valmoria and Mabolo church officials before they file a robbery charge against Lumapak, who is now detained at the Mabolo Police Station.
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