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Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Hunt on for suspects in Lepanto rob-slay
By Harley Palangchao
BAGUIO -- President Arroyo ordered police on Monday to go after the armed men who robbed a mining plant in Benguet of P12 million worth of gold bars and killed five of the company's employees.
Told the perpetrators were heavily armed, Arroyo ordered law enforcers to track down the robbers with the same degree of "decisiveness and alacrity" that made possible the early solution of the bank heists in Manila.
She was referring to the robbing of the Citibank in Makati City of a still undetermined amount. More than 10 men carrying military rifles reportedly perpetuated the robbery.
Authorities arrested some of the alleged robbers on Sunday.
Arroyo said she wants those behind the killing of an engineer and four security guards of the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company in the town of Mankayan immediately brought to justice.
After killing five Lepanto employees, the armed men took off with 21.86 kilos of gold bars and two high-powered firearms.
Arroyo warned that crime does not pay "whether for petty snatchers or rogues in uniform," adding there would be no letup in the police and military operations against the suspects.
Security lapses
Over at Camp Dangwa in Benguet, Benguet Provincial Police Office director Sr. Supt. Conrado Miņano, said the heist might have occurred in part because of lapses in security at the Lepanto plant in the mineral-rich Mankayan town.
He said company security supervisors and heads of three private security agencies hired by Lepanto would be subjected to investigation to determine their degree of negligence.
"How come this kind of violent robbery could happen in a supposed well secured company compound when even members of the PNP could not enter if not authorized," Miņano pointed out.
He added that Lepanto employees and even administrators are subjected to thorough inspection before they are allowed to enter the premises of the company's gold processing plant located at the lower mill site.
Miņano earlier said police are looking into an inside job angle in their investigation into the robbery and killing of five employees.
"We are 100 percent sure there is connivance in the robbery and killing of Lepanto personnel. The site of the incident is a well secured place and no authorized person can just enter the premises."
He theorized that some of the perpetrators are well familiar with the area and wore masks to avoid being recognized.
Lepanto has yet to say if it was planning to end the contracts of three private security agencies.
Establish links
Sources in the mining company said the bodies of the slain Lepanto personnel were already brought to their respective provinces.
Killed were site engineer Ricardo Tamayo Jr., security supervisors Francisco Mallare and Peter Chopchopen, and company guards Abraham Damogo and Romeo Pongod. They were on their way to the company's general office from the refinery supposedly to secure the 21.8 kilos of gold bars.
Arroyo said after solving the Lepanto incident, the next thing police need to do is establish links between the group responsible for the robberies and other underworld networks so that criminal conspiracies can be brought out of the woodwork.
"This is a self-cleansing process within the military and police as much as it is a serious crackdown on organized crime. Rogues in uniform will be exposed, arrested and prosecuted," she added.
Arroyo congratulated the combined police and military team who apprehended the suspects in the August 25 Citibank robbery, which she said was an international embarrassment for the Philippines.
The team raided on Sunday a cluster of houses inside the Armor and Wildcat Villages at the Palar (Philippine Army Light Armor Regiment) compound in Taguig, leading to the arrest of the 11 suspects.
The suspects included a retired Army major, a member of opposition Senator Gregorio Honasan's Philippine Brotherhood Inc., and a Bantay Bayan volunteer overseeing the peace and order in the compound.
Following the series of robbery cases in Metro Manila, Arroyo earlier ordered the police to come up an order of battle for robbery syndicates. With She Caguimbal-Torres
(September 23, 2003 issue)
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