Sunday, May 18, 2008 Police beef up security plans
LOCAL law enforcement agencies are intensifying police visibility and are closely coordinating with banks and similar establishments following Friday’s gruesome robbery in Cabuyao, Laguna where nine people were killed.
Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Patrocinio Comendador yesterday said the CCPO has also directed the Mobile Patrol Group (MPG) to patrol banks, especially those with less than two security guards.
Beat patrol policemen were also deployed in strategic places near banks and money-lending firms.
All 11 police stations in the city were also directed to coordinate with the security division of the banks and establishments so that there will be a uniform security response system.
Target-hardening on suspected robbery groups are also being done by the police.
This, as government officials and private groups have offered a P1 million reward for a group of robbers who killed the nine persons, police officials said yesterday.
President Arroyo was “fuming” and “dismayed” and ordered an immediate, thorough investigation, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said.
“It was definitely a work of the devil,” Ermita told radio dzBB.
In one of the country’s bloodiest bank robberies, seven bank employees, a depositor and a security guard were shot in the head in gangland-style executions Friday, police said. One employee was hospitalized in critical condition.
There has been speculation the victims may have been killed because they knew some of the robbers.
They were found sprawled on the floor of a branch of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. in Cabuyao, Laguna, after suspicious customers alerted authorities when the bank failed to open as scheduled at 9 a.m.
Laguna Provincial Police Chief Felipe Rojas said the provincial governor and a senator each offered P100,000 while a private group – Friends of the Philippine National Police – gave P800,000 to a reward kitty.
Rojas said two security guards initially reported missing have been taken in for questioning. Both denied involvement and are not currently considered suspects, he said.
He said one explained he was not at the bank because he was on leave. The other gave inconsistent statements, he said, declining to give details.
Rojas also said both guards and all the victims were being tested to check if they had fired weapons. The guards are to undergo polygraph tests next week.
He said Philippine, U.S. and Japanese currency worth about P2.94 million was found strewn on the floor, more than the initial estimate of P427,900. He said the robbers were believed to have fled with much more.
Rojas earlier said “many” robbers were involved “because this was a very complex operation.” The robbers appeared to have used a back door.
A vehicle owned by one of the bank employees was used by the robbers to escape. It was later recovered several kilometers away, he said.
In Cebu City, CCPO Chief Comendador said that through the Joint Anti-Bank Robbery Action Team (Jabrat), members of bankers’ clubs, local government units and law enforcement agencies such as the police and the National Bureau of Investigation meet every first Thursday of the month to discuss security concerns, especially if there are reports on arrival of robbery groups in the city.
For almost a year now, Comendador said, there has been no bank heist pulled off in Cebu City so far.
The last reported bank robbery in the city was last June 29 when three men later identified as members of the Casimero “Meloy” Garcia robbery group victimized Metro Cebu Public Savings Bank on N. Bacalso Ave., Cebu City and ran off with more than P500,000 in cash.
In coordination with the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 and the Cebu City Hall, Comendador also said he has proposed that in every pair of beat patrol policemen, one of them will be issued with a long-firearm.
The proposal is still up for approval, he said. (AP/JST)
