Bank, coop in Oro robbed

ROBBERS ransacked a bank and a multi-purpose cooperative in Cagayan de Oro Sunday evening, carting away an estimated P380,000 cash from the two establishments, police said.

Police Superintendent Salvador Radam, station commander of Police Station 4 in Carmen, said ransacked were Asian Hills Bank and MSU-IIT Multi-purpose Cooperative located along Vamenta Boulevard in Barangay Carmen.

Initial investigation showed that the suspects entered the Asian Hills Bank first and carted away some P200,000 cash, as declared by bank official Laura Ocoy.

The MSU-IIT multi-purpose cooperative is located adjacent to Asian Hills where robbers also took at least P180,000, based on the statement of the establishment’s employee, Geroll Bacu Pasagui.

CAGAYAN DE ORO. A Scene of the Crime Operative examines the hole where the suspects gain entry inside the Asian Hills Bank in Carmen, Cagayan de Oro. (Joey P. Nacalaban)

Further investigation conducted by operatives of Carmen Police Station showed that on Friday, two men rented a space of the building owned by Liberato Acapulco, which is only adjacent to the two establishments.

Radam said the suspects promised Acapulco to pay the rental within this week amounting to P10,000.

“They said they would make the area a massage clinic. The owner immediately gave the key of the room to the renters,” he said.

Police later recovered several tools including a wire cutter, steel saw with handle, heavy duty jack, hole digger, electric sander, screw driver, three pieces iron steel saw blade without handle, eight pieces dewalt sander, a five-meter wire extension and knife inside the rented room, which were believed to be used by the suspects in making a hole going to the bank.

“It is possible that the suspects also went out through Acapulco’s building,” Radam said.

It was learned that the suspects destroyed the bank’s closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera.

Police operatives are still conducting a follow up investigation to identify the suspects.