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By Anthony Vargas Reporter
The three high-profile robbery
incidents in Quezon City during the past two weeks have sent top
police officials scrambling on how to prevent more similar cases in
the future. All were carried out by heavily-armed men.
The first of the incidents took
place on January 22 when armed men barged inside the Land Bank of
the Philippines branch in E. Rodriguez Avenue, Quezon City.
Fortunately, the suspects made
off with a measly amount of cash as they were several minutes late
from intercepting a huge cash delivery to the said bank that same
day.
Then on Tuesday morning, armed
men stole some P100,000 in cash from an armored van while it was
parked in front of the Union Bank branch on Timog Avenue, also in
Quezon City.
Before that incident, a group of
armed men also robbed an armored van parked in front of the
Anson’s Supermart on Molave Street in Project 3, also in Quezon
City. The suspects who escaped on motorcycles were able to steal
P500,000 but not after shooting to death a security guard.
Following the said incidents, the
Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief, Director General Avelino
Razon Jr., ordered the deployment of more police personnel in the
field.
“We will be intensifying our
police visibility and we are ordering all police station commanders
to be in the streets along with their men,” Razon said.
Report early to work
The PNP chief said that police
station commanders should be on the streets starting from 9 a.m. up
to 3 p.m. to ensure maximum police visibility.
“They will be holding office
there in the streets to ensure that police visibility is in
place,” Razon said.
Senior Supt. Magtanggol Gatdula,
chief of the Quezon City Police District said that they are not lax
in their job. He said it is just difficult to cover a vast area like
Quezon City, the largest locality in Metro Manila in terms of land
area.
“We don’t have enough number
of men … that is the reason why I have sought augmentation from
the NCRPO [National Capital Regional Police] and from the Army,”
Gatdula said.
The Quezon City police chief said
the NCRPO has responded by sending 110 members of its Regional
Special Action Unit, while the Army is sending 50 infantry troops.
“All in all we will be getting
an augmentation of 160 men,” Gatdula said.
He added that they will hold a
conference and review on where the augmentations will be deployed.
Heavily-armed suspects
A middle rank police officer
based in Camp Crame said that it is always difficult for police to
engage bank robbers in a gun battle, because the suspects are
usually armed with high-powered firearms.
“Imagine you’ll [be] engaging
men armed with assault rifles like the M-16, and the policemen are
usually armed only with 9mm pistols,” the police officer, who
requested not to be named, said.
The police officer added that
robbery suspects seem to be highly-trained, with some of them being
former policemen or soldiers who may have been dismissed from the
service.
Based on records from Camp Crame,
police recorded a total of 54 high-profile robbery incidents in the
country in 2007, up by 20 incidents from the previous year.
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