Alleged pawnshop robbery mastermind among 2023 Bar examination passers
An alleged mastermind of a pawnshop robbery is now a certified Bar examination passer.
Jigger Geverola of Barangay Gutlang, Argao town, Cebu Province, placed 1,780th among 3,812 passers of the recently concluded 2023 Bar examination.
Citing local newspaper The Freeman, ABS-CBN News said that Geverola felt "ambivalent" when he learned he passed the bar, which prompted his legal counsel, Atty. Vincent Isles to question authorities in accusing the former of his alleged crime.
"Why would Mr. Geverola, soon to be Atty. Geverola, throw away years of hard work to become a lawyer for some jewels he knew he could afford once he is already a lawyer?" he said.
Together with his attorney, Geverola is hoping that he can take his oath as a lawyer this December 22.
"Our hope is that the Office of the City Prosecutor would not find probable cause against him so that he would be ordered out of detention by Dec. 11. Otherwise we would be putting up bail so that he could attend the oath-taking in Manila by December 22," Isles said to the media outlet.
Once he becomes a full-fledged lawyer, Gerevola told The Freeman that he would help his fellow inmates in the custodial facility of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).
Geverola has been detained in Cebu City after he was linked to the Nov. 25 robbery in Oro Sugbo Pawnshop and Jewelry Store that was caught on CCTV.
This came after the other two suspects, namely Dann Carlo Geverola Flores and Jordan Ramos Baquiano, disclosed in their extrajudicial confessions that Geverola was also involved in the robbery, Panay News reported.
The authorities then accused Geverola of leading the group and providing the getaway car.
Meanwhile, Geverola was also imprisoned in 2004 for murder and arson charges for allegedly burning a Philtranco bus in Catmon and was released in 2011.
According to Police Colonel Ireneo B. Dalogdog, the City Director of the CCPO via Cebu Daily News, Geverola was described as an official of the Communist in Central Visayas Regional Party Committee and noted his previous active participation in rallies.
In 2020, he completed his law studies at the Southwestern University in Cebu City and took the Bar this year.