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Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Malilong: Learning a lesson
By Frank Malilong
The Other Side
Those who do not learn from the experience of others, my old lady always reminds me, will learn it the hard way. Those who do not learn from their own experience will have hell to pay. To paraphrase an oft-repeated saw, to err is human; to err again is something else.
Early this year, the East West Bank on Archbishop Reyes Ave. was robbed of P500,000. The other day, the same bank was robbed again of at least P50,000, according to police sources.
Lightning seldom, if at all, strikes twice on the same spot. Criminal elements, it seems, are not as sparing; if at first they succeeded, they will try and try again. Crime is not a fortuitous event; it is a matter of choice.
It is the criminal who determines where, when, how and against whom to strike. The victim doesn’t have a say but he can actually influence the criminal’s choice. For example, a scantily dressed woman who walks at midnight in a secluded area is an invitation to rape in much the same way, as my own personal experience shows, that an uninhabited office is a magnet to burglary.
East West Bank isn’t the only bank in Cebu to have been robbed twice; Land Bank of the Philippines shares that same distinction. Of all the banks operating in Cebu, why have the robbers targeted them only?
I am not accusing these banks of the recklessness of the hypothetical woman.
The police, however, reported that at the time of the second robbery, the bank had only one guard, its alarm system was not activated and it did not have a security camera.
Could these “lapses” have been known to the robbers and emboldened them to strike again? Paul Labra, the chief of the police Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau, noted similarities in the modus operandi employed in last Monday’s and the January 31 (which was also a Monday) heists. This raises the possibility, although Labra refused to publicly discuss this, that the two robberies could have been pulled by one and the same band.
If Labra’s unspoken theory is true, then we are witnessing insolence at is highest. The robbers are thumbing their noses at the bank for failing to protect itself from being attacked again and at the police for their continued inability to arrest them. Many things can be added about the latter but that will be for a later piece in this corner.
Suffice it to say in the meantime that the remote possibility of being caught is as decisive a factor in the decision to commit a crime as the vulnerability of the victim.
The bank management, according to this paper yesterday, has issued a statement that it has undertaken steps to protect its assets and its clients against similar incidents. It may be a little more expensive but it is never too late to learn a lesson.
(September 28, 2005 issue)
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