DIPOLOG CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 13, 2013) – Police arrested a young man who was allegedly behind the series of robbery incidents and thievery in the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga del Norte.
Police said Junard Alba was nabbed after one of his victims, Amy Baya, was shocked to see one of four stolen cell phones being sold at a shop in downtown Manukan. The 43-year old Baya sought the shop owner, who admitted buying the phone from Antonio Retes, who was Alba’s cohort.
Retes told police investigators that Alba instructed him to sell the phone. The shop owner has returned the phone to Baya.
It was unknown whether police would file charges against the shop owner for violating the Anti-Fencing law.
According the Revised Penal Code, “fencing is the act of any person who, with intent to gain for himself or for another, shall buy, receive, possess, keep, acquire, conceal, sell or dispose of, or shall buy and sell, or in any other manner deal in any article, item, object or anything of value which he knows, or should be known to him, to have been derived from the proceeds of the crime of robbery or theft.”
Any person guilty of fencing shall be punished the penalty of “prision mayor” – 6 years to 12 years in prison – if the value of the property involved is more than P12,000 but not exceeding 22,000 pesos. (Mindanao Examiner
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