"Bicol's Most Wanted" robs game center

The CBD Plaza Hotel, Naga City

NAGA CITY (March 11, 2012) – A notorious criminal in the Bicol's top 40 most wanted list and cohorts were caught in Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) as the perpetrators of a recent armed robbery in a gaming center at a hotel in this city.

According to the Naga City police, Juanito Masalonga Ona, “alias, Totoy Ona” 42 years old and known “hired-gunman” played an electronic game all night at the Platinum Sphere Gaming Center (PSGC) located inside CBD Hotel at the Central Business District (CBD) II in Barangay Triangulo on Tuesday (March 6) and was losing heavily when he wrested a Caliber 38 revolver from PSGC's security guard, Jesus Gupilan, and grabbed P20,000 from the cashier before fleeing.

Naga City Police Office, Police Community Relations (PCR) head, Chief Inspector Efren Orlina said on Thursday (March 8) that Ona is included in the list of 40 most wanted personalities by the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) and has multiple outstanding warrants of arrest.

When shown a file photo and the CCTV footage by the police, Donabel Fulgar, 23, a cashier at the PSGC, positively identified Ona as the one who took the cash from him at gunpoint.

Fulgar said that Ona had played “E-game” (an electronic numbers-game) continuously since the evening of March 5 and was already losing P160,000 when he last borrowed P50,000 from the counter to play on.

At 7:45 A.M. March 6, Ona apparently had lost all his money and carried out the armed robbery together with unidentified male companions.

A policeman, PO1 Ernesto Lledo, radioed an alert of the incident to the Naga Police Office headquarters, prompting City Police director, Senior Supt. Antonio Gardiola to lead a “dragnet operation” to arrest the fleeing suspects.

At a police checkpoint at barangay Balatas, the police apprehended Domingo Abelinde, a companion of Ona, who was driving the latter’s get-away vehicle, a Blue Mitsubishi Lancer with plate number PJL-167.

Found in the possession of Abelinde were an Italian pistol Caliber 250 loaded with 7-rounds of ammunition, assorted Caliber 32 and Magnum 22 bullets, including another 24-rounds of Caliber 250 bullets, a fan-kife and 2 sachets of shabu.

Ona, who remains at large, and companions now face charges of armed-robbery, illegal possession of firearms and violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

Naga City Mayor John Bongat praised the Naga City Police Office for its immediate response at the crime scene on Tuesday and for the recent restructuring of the police stations into community precints resulting in augmented police visibility in the city's barangays. (SONNY SALES)