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Saturday, August 23, 2003
Armed men rob bank vehicle, take P3.5M
By Dino R. Zabala
DAGUPAN CITY -- Several men wearing masks and carrying high-powered firearms accosted a Bank of Commerce vehicle at the height of a heavy downpour in this city on Thursday afternoon and ran away with P3.5 million in cash.
The vehicle carrying several bank employees was just a few meters away from the Export and Industry Bank when robbers aboard a gray Isuzu Crosswind cut across its path near the intersection of Perez Boulevard and Zamora Street.
The employees had just withdrawn money from the Export and Industry Bank and were set to return to their office when the heist happened.
Three of Bank of Commerce's security guards accompanying the vehicle said when the robbers cut across their path, they thought their vehicle had figured in a road accident.
They were shocked when the men pointed guns at them.
Bank employees said the robbers wasted no time: they smashed the side window, opened the vehicle's back door, and grabbed the two bags containing the money from the teller in less than five minutes.
Well planned
"It was a well planned and precise thing," said Supt. Noli G. Taliņo, city police chief, of the robbery.
He said police responding to the alarm was caught in traffic along Perez Boulevard. They arrived at the scene five minutes after the robbers fled aboard their vehicle.
Speed cops and Public Order and Safety Office (Poso) operatives who joined the chase came across the vehicle used in the robbery that was abandoned in Barangay Pogo Grande.
Recovered inside the vehicle were an M-14 rifle, two masks and a sweatshirt.
Taliņo said the suspects had transferred to a maroon FX Tamaraw van with a red plate.
Police later recovered the van, which was abandoned by its occupants at around 7 p.m. Thursday, said Calasiao Municipal Police Office Chief Candito Quijardo.
Getaway cars
Concerned citizens reportedly tipped off police to the location of the vehicle.
The informants, according to Quijardo, said they saw several men came out of the van carrying bags, which might have contained the money they took from Bank of Commerce employees.
He said the recovered vehicle carried a government license plate, possibly stolen, as the painted markings on both sides of the van showed it was registered as a public utility vehicle and that its real license plate was TVB 683. Written on the sides of the van as the owner of the vehicle was a certain Felix Dalay of Sampaloc, Manila.
Taliņo, meanwhile, believed the two getaway cars were stolen.
He said he would review the security measures in the city and is considering the putting up of additional police community precincts in various areas.
"As Dagupan has several entry and exit points, we study how we could strengthen the security of the city," he said.
Crime syndicate
Taliņo and Quijardo said the robbers could be members of an organized crime syndicate operating in Metro Manila, who came to the city to cool off for a while.
Taliņo said he and Quijardo are coordinating with each other since they suspect that the robbers are either in Dagupan or Calasiao.
In pointing out that it was a well-planned robbery, he said the robbers took the Zamora Street route towards Pogo Grande, which leads out to the towns of Calasiao in the south, Binmaley in the west and Urdaneta City in the east.
"We are now conducting a massive follow-up, and one of the plan is to establish a dragnet. But I cannot divulge more in order not to preempt the operation," Taliņo pointed out.
Police believe that the robbers have local contacts.
'All possibilities'
The three security guards of the bank are being investigated at the city police station, said Taliņo, as investigators are considering "all possibilities."
They are identified as Noli Aquino, Warly Zapatero and Jerry Taoingan. The female bank teller, who was also in the vehicle, was identified as Giselle Soberano.
If he had resisted the robbers, a bank guard said he would not have been talking right now.
Authorities following up on the incident arrested but later released a male person they picked while they were on their way to process the evidence in the abandoned getaway vehicle.
He was found to be a member of the Mancar Security Agency based in the boundary of Barangays Pogo and Malued. He was supposed to report to the agency after being dismissed from his duty. Sun.Star Pangasinan
(August 23, 2003 issue)
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