Saturday, June 29, 2002
Guard’s actuations were unusual, says bank manager
EMMA Salvador walked into the Metrobank branch she managed last Wednesday, thinking she only had a busy banking day ahead.
Instead, Salvador, 42, found herself being threatened at gunpoint by a masked man, forced to open the bank vault, then tied up along with her frightened staff.
Even before the F. Ramos St. and Gen. Maxilom Ave. branch could open that day, it had already lost P500,000 to the robbers.
Excerpts from her affidavit submitted to the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office follow:
“On the morning of June 26, I reported for work and noticed that the rope used to cordon off my parking area was already untied. I went to the front door and noticed that the guard on duty was not at his post.
“I peeped inside. The place was quiet and the lights were still off.
“It was only on my second knock that I saw the security guard, Joel Empiedad, running towards the door to open it. Upon entering, I heard him say, “Ang relibo Ma’am, wa pa man.” (The next guard hasn’t arrived yet.)
“I saw nobody else when I turned on the lights and went towards my table.
After I placed my blazer on my chair and turned around, a man wearing a bonnet mask and jacket was pointing a gun at me from about two meters away and told me, “Ayaw og siyagit kay gipatay na nako ang imong usa ka guard. Basig ikaw akong isunod.” (Don’t scream. I’ve killed one of your guards. You might be next.)
“He immediately brought me to the kitchen, where I saw another man also wearing a bonnet, tying the hands of two of my personnel….
“One of the two men asked who the manager was. I presented myself, so he untied me and asked me to open the vault. The man with the shotgun escorted me to the vault door and opened it, using my combination. After that, I was taken to the kitchen and tied up again…
“I asked the men to transfer us to the comfort room because I thought we would be safer there. But we were instead transferred to the generator room, where I saw my pregnant employee, Catherine Bustamante, tied to a chair with masking tape over her mouth and eyes…
“Another guard, Arthur Pantaleon, was brought in and tied up, followed by Raymund Yuri Gagarra, the branch cashier. He was then asked to open the vault. Gagarra asked my permission and I told him to follow their orders. After a while, he was brought back and tied up.
“Cristino Autida, another guard, was also brought in but he was not tied up. All of us were left inside with the door slightly opened, and we were warned not to make any false moves.
“While we were inside the generator room, we heard Joel Empiedad, the security guard, talking to a woman. Later, he answered a phone call.
“When I noticed that the place was already quiet, I tried to go outside, but was persuaded by the other employees not to do so. Instead, it was the security guard Cristino Autida who crawled outside and I noticed him signaling with a thumbs-up sign to somebody. We heard somebody say, “Okay na.”
“I immediately contacted Patricio Go, the bank’s area supervisor, to inform him of the incident. Moments later, I heard sirens, then the police came in.
“While the robbery was taking place, I noticed something unusual in the actuations of the security guard, Joel Empiedad, when he did not meet me outside. He was not able to open the door immediately when I arrived.
“He did not also inform me of the presence of the two men inside the bank premises. I was also surprised why he did not do anything or run outside and ask for help, when he was unguarded all the while and had all the chances to escape.
“After the robbers fled, a cash count was immediately conducted by the bank’s internal auditors and it was found out that the money lost to the robbers amounted to P500,000.” |
