Ex-cop wanted for series of robberies tagged in Duljo Fatima convenience store heist

a 7-Eleven store along N. Bacalso Ave. in barangay Duljo Fatima was robbed past 1 a.m. yesterday. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

Police tagged a dismissed policeman as among the two men who robbed a 24-hour convenience store in Cebu City early yesterday morning.

Senior Insp. Gerald Suquib, commander of the Mambaling Police Station, said investigators who initially viewed a security camera footage have recognized Eugene Salingay as one of the two men who barged into a 7-Eleven store along N. Bacalso Ave. in barangay Duljo Fatima at 1:45 a.m.

His cohort, who served as a lookout, was identified as Michael “Paw-paw” Baldemesa.

The robbery was recorded by the store’s closed-circuit television camera. The perpetrators fled with an estimated P20,000 cash taken from the store’s cash box.

Police said the two were also linked to the two robbery incidents in October – of an Alberto’s Pizza branch in P. Del Rosario St. in Oct. 30 and the Oct. 9 Western Union branch heist in barangay Guadalupe.

Cebu City Police Office director, Senior Supt. Noli Romana said Salingay, a native of Oroquieta City, has been the subject of a manhunt operation since the Western Union incident, but his alleged involvement in yesterday’s incident is still under investigation.

Supt. Romeo Santander, chief of the CCPO City Intelligence Branch, said they are yet to review the CCTV footage to confirm Salingay and Baldemesa’s identity.

Yesterday’s incident came a day after the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) issued a director to all chiefs of police to intensify security measures as they expect crime incidents to shoot up in the run up to the Christmas season.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said he will meet all of the city’s police station commanders to remind them that they should remain vigilant.

“There should be no lowering of our guards,” he told reporters yesterday.

Carl Louie Peralta, the 7-Eleven store cashier, said he was organizing the store’s counter shelves when he saw security guard, Winster Ian Adlawan, being disarmed by two men at gunpoint.

The perpetrators together with the guard then entered the store and herded the store’s clerks to one side before one of them approached the counter and took the cash from the cash register.

Clint Talite said he had no inkling that the store was being robbed when he stepped in.

The perpetrators allegedly threatened him not to get out.

According to one of the store’s clerks, the robbers were wearing “branded” shirts.

“Atong makita nga limpyo gyod to sila plus ilang T-shirts mga branded pud kay duna man tay kauban diri nga mahiligon pud og ingon adto nga brand (The perpetrators were decent looking and they were wearing branded shirts. We have a colleague who patronizes the same brand of shirt they were wearing),” said PO3 Albert Sator, investigator of the Mambaling Police Station.

After the heist, the two just walked casually towards the direction of the Salazar Institute of Technology. Another report however said that the perpetrators fled in a motorcycle.

Sator said the shop’s clerks should have immediately alerted the police as a mobile patrol car was just 200 meters away at the time the robbers struck. /with reports from Jose Santino Bunachita and Apple Ta-as

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