Cops eye link of nabbed armed BMO member to Friday’s Labangon robbery, murder incident
Redjie Cabingatan is arrested after he was caught with a Frontier handgun and allegedly illegal drugs at a checkpoint in Barangay Buhisan in Cebu City. |Benjie Talisic
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police are investigating if the member of the Barangay Mayor’s Office in Barangay Toong in Cebu City is responsible for robbing and killing a student on Tres De Abril Street last Friday night.
The investigation was prompted after Redjie Cabingatan, 45, was caught with a firearm and suspected shabu at a checkpoint in Barangay Buhisan in conducted by the City Force Mobile Company (CFMC) of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said Major Chuck Barandong, CFMC chief, in a phone interview with CDN Digital on Monday.
Barandong said that Cabingatan, who was riding a motorcycle, was caught with a Frontier handgun that uses Armalite M-16 bullets.
Aside from that, Barandong said that Cabingatan was also caught with several sachets of suspected shabu.
The gun found in Redjie Cabingatan’s U-box. |Benjie Talisic
Barandong said that they conducted the Barangay Buhisan checkpoint after a college student and her girlfriend who were walking along Tres de Abril Street in Barangay Labangon were robbed by two men on a motorcycle last Friday night, March 29.
Friday’s robbery was the second in the city involving pedestrians and commuters in a span of five days. The first one led to the death of the robber after an off-duty police officer, who was a passenger of the jeepney, shot the fleeing robber along Natalio Bacalso Avenue on March 24.
Read more: Robber shot dead in PUJ ‘a sibling’ of suspect behind DJ Maxi Bolongaita’s killing
According to a police report, the college student, died in the hospital after he was shot in the leg when he tried to stop the robber from taking his girlfriends’ bag.
Barandong said that Cabingatan denied the robbery and murder allegations against him.
He also denied having illegal drugs inside the U-Box of his motorcycle where a Frontier gun was found.
Cabingatan was detained at the CCPO detention cell pending the filing of charges./ dbs
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
