Another charge filed vs. Robinson’s heist ‘leader’

Junjun Cabando, alias Dionisio Cabatingan, faces robbery with homicide case at the Regional Trial Court.

ALREADY facing a robbery with homicide case in court, the alleged leader of a robbery group tagged in the botched heist at Robinson’s Place Cebu last year will face another case.

The Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor yesterday lodged a robbery with homicide case against Junjun Cabando, alias Dionisio Cabatingan, and three of his still unidentified cohorts before the Regional Trial Court.

A P200,000 bail was recommended for his temporary freedom and that of his co-accused. The respondents remain at large.

“The allegations in the affidavit of the complainant and the supporting witnesses are sufficient to engender probable cause to indict respondents,” wrote Assistant City Prosecutor Mario Ley Gidayawan.

Cabando and his companions were indicted after they failed to submit their counter-affidavit, prompting the state prosecutors to resolve the charge based on the complainant’s affidavit alone.

In February, the prosecutor’s office also filed a separate robbery with homicide case in court against Cabando and his three accomplices blamed for the Sept. 5 robbery at Robinson’s Place Cebu.

The Cebu City Police Office charged Cabando with two counts of robbery with homicide, two counts of frustrated homicide, and robbery with physical injuries.

The charges against Cabatingan stemmed from his group’s attack on a teller of Chinabank.

The robbers snatched from the bank teller a bag containing P1.2 million inside Robinsons Place. The heist resulted in the deaths of three robbers and two security guards.

Bank teller Lewin Kaye Surig, in his complaint, said he and his security escorts arrived at Robinson’s around 9:30 a.m. last Sept. 5.

They were about to deliver P1.2 million to a money changer at the mall’s ground floor.