Filipino cop arrested for $4,000 gas station robbery
MANILA: A police lieutenant has been arrested following a top-speed highway chase for his alleged involvement in the $4,000 robbery of a gasoline station in Isabela province in the Northern Luzon highlands, a ranking police officer confirmed on Tuesday.
Brigadier General Angelito Casimiro, the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Cagayan Valley regional command, identified the suspect as Lieutenant Oliver Tolentino whom he tagged as a “scalawag.”
Citing an initial police report, Casimiro said an alarm was raised when the owner of a gasoline station in a “barangay” (village) in the town of Reina Mercedes in Isabela reported that lone armed man aboard an Asian utility vehicle (AUV) robbed them of $4,000 in cash late on Sunday afternoon.
When Tolentino who was driving the AUV arrived at the checkpoint, Casimiro showed the policemen manning the facility an ID identifying him as a PNP member with the rank of a lieutenant.
The checkpoint was set up as part of the enhanced community quarantine or total lockdown declared by the Duterte administration covering not only Metro Manila but also the whole of the main island of Luzon.
Before Tolentino was allowed to leave, however, Captain Christopher Danilo, the town police chief, ordered him to turn off his engine to enable his men to make a thorough investigation of the vehicle, according to Casimiro.
But it was at this point, Casimiro said, that instead of following the order, Tolentino sped off in an apparent attempt to escape that resulted in a top-speed highway chase towards Cauayan City in Isabela.
During the chase, Casimiro said Tolentino rammed through roadblocks set up in the checkpoint leading to Cauayan where the suspect later surrendered at the police station after seeing the futility of his attempted escape.
The policemen involved in the chase confiscated from Tolentino an unlicensed .38 caliber revolver believed to have been used in the robbery as well as assorted ammunition, Casimiro reported.