Charges filed vs. 8 suspects in bank rob

ILOILO CITY, Philippines  — Charges were finally filed against eight suspects of the January 3 EastWest Bank robbery.

The police earlier made several attempts to file the charges against the robbery suspects, but the bank's lawyers allegedly advised against it because the evidences and testimonies were "weak" at the time.

The Regional Special Operations Group (RSOG) and the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) recently filed robbery in band and frustrated murder charges against Arman Mayormente of Jereos St., La Paz, Iloilo City; Rose Aina Sarmiento of Brgy. Liboo, Dingle, Iloilo; Jade Catedral of Badiangan, Iloilo; and five other John Does.

Mayormente was the alleged leader of the group who staged the robbery and one of the four men who entered the bank along with Catedral.

Sarmiento, and not Isidra Ladesma who was earlier arrested and later freed, was the woman who asked security guard Lony Pablico to use the bank's ATM.

Mayormente, Catedral, and Sarmiento were identified through the bank's CCTV footages. Pablico also testified against the suspects. He earlier backed out from testifying against Ladesma.

Even earlier, police already suspected that local groups like the Poblacion Group and the Mayormente Group were behind the robbery.

Sources however said the Poblacion, on its own, has no capacity to launch such big operations unless it teams up with the Alarba robbery group. The three robber groups - Poblacion, Mayormente, and Alarba - have members who are presently in prison.

Meanwhile, ICPO chief Senior Supt. Marietto Valerio said they did everything to establish a strong case against the suspects. "We just hope that the arrest warrant would be handed down against them soon," he said.

Valerio also confirmed that the three identified suspects have fled Iloilo and presumably out of Western Visayas, too. (FREEMAN)