By Jennifer P. Rendon
Two of the seven suspects in the robbery of Electronic Transfer & Advance Processing Inc. (eTAP) were arrested after a hot pursuit operation on Oct. 9.
Police identified the suspects as alias Jun-Jun, 39, a Grab car driver from Sagay City, Negros Occidental, and alias Serapio, 37, of Barangay Sta. Monica, Oton, Iloilo.
Jun-Jun was arrested following a short chase in Jaro, Iloilo City, at around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Captain Roquero Gimeno III, Iloilo City Police Station 1 chief, said the suspect resisted arrest but was eventually subdued.
Authorities recovered P29,050 in cash from his possession.
It took a while before Jun-Jun revealed the identity of his companion, Serapio, who was arrested at 9:30 p.m. while driving his passenger tricycle in Pavia, Iloilo.
Police recovered P25,700 from Serapio, which was part of the stolen amount.
The two suspects claimed that a certain Ariston masterminded the eTAP machine robbery at around 6 a.m. on Wednesday at The Atrium in Barangay Danao, City Proper district.
Ariston, an employee of the company that maintains the eTAP services in Iloilo, had easy access to the machine.
Gimeno said Ariston, a resident of Sta. Barbara town who also maintains a house in Pavia, remains at large.
The theft was only discovered at 9:25 a.m. when one of the company’s employees noticed that the machine had been opened.
In addition to the three suspects, four other John Does allegedly assisted in carrying out the robbery.
Gimeno said Ariston single-handedly opened the machine and took P340,190 in cash.
A guard from a nearby fast-food chain reportedly saw Ariston but assumed he was using the eTAP, a self-service payment kiosk that primarily handles cash transactions.
Ariston allegedly arrived on a motorcycle driven by Serapio.
When the theft was complete, Jun-Jun picked up Ariston in his Grab car.
CCTV footage showed that two John Does acted as lookouts. When Ariston finished clearing out the machine, the lookouts boarded two separate motorcycles.
Seven suspects have been officially charged with robbery at the Iloilo City Prosecutors’ Office as of Thursday.
