NAGA CITY -- The filing of criminal charges against suspected robbers who shot dead a security escort and wounded another at a Jollibee food outlet here hit a snag after a police investigator asked to withdraw the case Monday from the prosecutor’s office.

        City prosecutor Romeo Tayo said PO3 Henry Carmona, police investigator of the case, opted to file a motion to temporarily withdraw the case “without prejudice to re-file the same” in the future.

        The complaint of robbery with homicide and frustrated homicide against suspected robber Robert Delfin and John Does stemmed from the heist that happened on November 5 at the Jollibee drive-thru branch in Panganiban Avenue here.

        A security escort of the Metrobank was shot nine times and died in the hospital while another one was critically wounded when the suspected robbers staged the robbery at about noon.

        Delfin was identified after the recovery of a Nokia N70 cellphone from the images downloaded from it that suggested that the suspect have been recording the events before the commission of the crime.

        Tayo said the information of the case lacks some documents required to make a case against the suspected robber Robert Delfin and several others.

        He said the initial complaint of robbery with homicide and frustrated homicide was raffled to Prosecutor Herman Cledera who set four required documents for the case.

        The documents include an authorization from the Metrobank to file the case, a sworn statement from the family of the slain security guard, medical certificate and medico-legal report of the autopsy and a certified report on the recovery or non-recovery of spent firearms cartridges at the crime scene.

        In the motion to withdraw the case, Carmona reasoned that he was “compelled to turned (sic) to the request of the PSO (Public Safety Office) members, to signed (sic) in the endorsement of the cited case for filing” but he said the “evidence to suffice and warrant indictment against the respondents have not yet been completed and still the subject of exhaustive police leg work”.

        Tayo said Carmona was granted to withdraw the complaint but the prosecutor’s office is open to accept a new complaint with the required documents asked by Cledera.

        The suspect Delfin who has pending cases for robbery in the towns of Silang and Dasmariñas in Cavite province had been nabbed by police on January 22 this year but was able to secure bail for his temporary liberty.

        Based on accounts of witnesses, the suspect was accompanied by three male accomplices whose cartographic sketches were released by police last week.