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First came media reports that “no bulletholes” appeared in the robbery gang’s safehouse in Compostela town.
Now police are looking into witness accounts that raise doubts that a shootout took place when agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) tracked down suspects of the Rolex robbery heist.
Chief Supt. Lani-O Nerez, police director for Central Visayas, said he received reports that only two men checked in the duplex apartment in sitio Lutaw Marikina, barangay Estaca, Compostela.
But four alleged robbers were killed in the NBI operation.
“There were stories that came out but we have to verify it because it was relayed by some people,” Nerez said.
A source, who lives in the area, told CEBU DAILY NEWS that two Cebuano-speaking men rented one of two beachside apartments in the morning of Oct. 26, a Monday.
He said he noticed that the men didn’t go out. They just stayed in the apartment which was rented for P1500 a day. They ordered food through the apartment caretakers.
Three days later, on Oct. 29, about 15 men entered the compound. A few minutes later, gunfire was heard. Caretakers were told to stay inside the room.
Four men were dead. One of them was identified as Alvin Flores, leader of the robbery gang who held up the Rolex luxury watch store on the ground floor of Greenbelt 5 in Makati City last Oct. 18.
The three others were involved in the heist. They were identified as Richie Hijapon, Mark Salamanca, and Roger Sanchez.
A fifth suspect – Rene Batiancila, a Cebuano –surrendered to NBI agents after trying to wade into the waters only to return to shore because he couldn’t swim.
Batiancila was brought to Manila on Saturday to be presented to Judge Alma Crispina Lacorte of Metropolitan Trial Court in Caloocan City who issued an arrest warrant against the suspect for illegal possession of firearms.
Medardo de Lemos, NBI director for Central Visayas, said the men were killed in a shootout with a joint Manila-Cebu NBI team who went to the Compostela beach house to serve arrest warrants.
The source said he wondered why four men were killed when only two men rented the apartment.
The witness said he noticed 15 men in T-shirts with “NBI” printed at the back, arrive at the apartment about 2 p.m of Thursday, Oct. 29.
The 15 men entered the gated residence and talked to the two men. A few minutes later, bursts of gunfire were heard. After the shooting, the caretakers were told by NBI agents to stay inside their rooms and not to talk to anyone.
One caretaker was later asked by NBI agents to buy fresh fish and shrimps in the market. The seafood was cooked and eaten inside the apartment.
News reporters, who rushed to barangay Estaca, were not allowed to get inside the apartment for almost four hours. NBI agents later explained that the crime scene had to be “processed” first.
When the media finally went inside the apartment, there was fried fish and shrimps inside the pantry.
One TV news team also reported that “no bulletholes” were noticed in the house. Corpses were already covered and rolled out to a funeral parlor van.
An intelligence officer from the PNP Regional Intelligence Division (RID) told that he received similar information about the smooth entry of NBI agents in the compound from one of the apartment caretakers.
The police official, who asked not to be named since he was not authorized by his superiors to talk, said the caretaker was first afraid to talk to the police since he was warned by the NBI not to speak to anyone about what happened.
The police official said the PRO-7 was investigating the incident but only for documentation.
Chief Supt. Nerez who visited the site last Oct. 31 said he also noticed that caretakers were hesitant to give him information. Nerez said he was there to gather information, which they could give to the NBI.
Compostela police said they were told about the NBI operation shortly before it rolled out.
NBI agents led by head agent Roel Bolivar chief of Reaction, Arrest and Interdiction Divission (RAID) and head agent Ernesto Macabare, NBI-7 executive officer, went to the police station at 4:52 p.m. to inform the police that they were serving the arrest warrants on Flores and Batiancila.
Past 5 p.m., municipal police heard reports about the shooting in Estaca, said PO2 Ronald Luna of the Compostela police.
When they went to the apartment, policemen led by police chief, Senior Insp. Milo Dagasdas, were not allowed to enter by NBI agents.
“Nalain lang mi gamay kay wa man jud mi pasudla bisan giunsa pa paghangyo sa amu hepe, gihmu ra noon mi crowd control sa gawas kay if di pud namu atimanon ang mga tawo magubot man pud tungod sa kadugay nila sa sud nagkadaghan pag-ayo ang mga tawo (We felt bad because we weren’t allowed to get inside despite the repeated requests of our police chief. We were just told to control the crowd outside to avoid a commotion because the NBI agents were inside the apartment for a long time and more people were gathering outside),” he said.
Luna said local police didn't get the names of the fatalities because the NBI didn’t give an incident report or allow them to enter while the bodies were still at the crime scene.
Luna and PO3 Renato Prieto were able to get inside when the NBI opened the gate past 10 p.m. or five hours after the operation took place.
Luna said that when police talked to the caretakers, they were scared and just referred them to the NBI.
The seaside apartment had been operating for seven years but it was closed down after the Oct. 29 shooting.
The owners, a Dutch national and his Filipina wife, decided to close it temporarily until the hullabaloo dies down and people forget, said a niece of a caretaker.
Since last Thursday, the owners haven’t allowed anyone to rent the apartments as well as the ukay-ukay store beside it.
A 19-year-old neighbor said the people running the apartment were not from Compostela town.
“They are not from here. They did not grow up here. Business has been slow even when they open the ukay-ukay store,” he said in Cebuano.
