Top cop keeps post for solving P4-M hotel heist

Pasay City police chief Senior Superintendent Dionisio Bartolome will retain his post for solving the P4-million robbery at a hotel early this month, an official said yesterday.

Bartolome was able to solve the case within the one-week deadline, National Capital Region Police Office chief Director Oscar Albayalde said.

Bartolome managed to identify one of the suspects and filed charges against him in court.

Albayalde gave Bartolome one week to solve the robbery at The Mabuhay Manor or face relief.

Charges of robbery in band, a non-bailable offense, were filed against Daniel Biñas Constantino, with aliases Dave Constantino and Anthony Herrera, 31, before the Pasay City prosecutor’s office.

Unlike the three other suspects, Constantino did not wear a mask when they pulled off the heist.

Bartolome said Constantino was identified after his neighbors saw him on closedcircuit television footage released by police.

Probers said Constantino was the one who disarmed the hotel’s security guard Jhoan Jabagat, 30, of his service firearm.

Police have yet to identify Contantino’s cohorts who remain at large.

Constantino is said to be a member of the Ilonggo group Tir-Tir, which is involved in robbery and carjacking.

Police said they were checking with the Land Transportation Office the owner of the black Hyundai Starex van used as a getaway vehicle by the suspects.

The robbers took more than $82,000 in cash and valuables from a Filipino-American citizen and his relatives and P53,000 of the hotel’s earnings for the day.