Two die, one hurt in botched depot robbery

PASSI CITY ,Philippines  — Two men died while another one was injured after at least six armed men barged into a Pepsi Cola warehouse at Simeon Aguilar Street in this city Saturday night.

Agusto Montefrio, 27, of Leganes town in Iloilo, and Roy Padernal, 30, of this city, were rushed to the Don Valerio Palmares Memorial Hospital but both were declared dead on arrival.

Montefrio, the depot’s security guard, succumbed to injury on his chest while, Padernal, who was employed as helper, suffered wounds on the back of his body.

Another helper, 17-year-old Charlie of San Miguel, Iloilo, was also injured but survived the incident. He is now confined at the Western Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao.

Florechelle Alarba, Padernal’s live-in partner, told PO2 Jesus Balitante that she, Padernal, Charlie and another stay-in helper Reynante Pineda were watching television at the warehouse office when they heard a gun fire from the guard house where Montefrio was posted.

Shortly after the gunfire, at least three men barged inside and poked guns, a .45 caliber pistol and 12-gauge shotgun at them.

Thinking perhaps that she was an employee of the warehouse, one of the gunmen grabbed and brought her to the adjacent room where the vault was located.

The suspect ordered her to open the vault but she insisted that she did not know the number combination because she was not employee and just living with Padernal at a barracks at the other side of the warehouse’s fence.

Shortly after, the gunman left her and then immediately left the scene with his companions.

Balitante surmised that Montefrio may have been killed at the guard post by the assailants upon arrival at the warehouse.

Superintendent Noel Dumalag, Passi City Police chief, said the cashier declared yesterday morning that nothing was taken from the cash at the vault. Reports said that the money amounted to around P400,000.

After the incident, Dumalag’s team conducted a pursuit operation at a mountainous portion of the city, but, for now, refused to divulge the identities of the possible suspects.