Cops: Suspects same in 2 Robinsons heists

Two of the five men in Friday’s Robinsons Metro East heist in Pasig City have been linked by the police to the robbery in March at Robinsons Galleria in Quezon City.

Insp. Elmer Monsalve of the Quezon City Police District’s homicide section said that the Eastern Police District (EPD) had identified the suspected robbers as Alexander Montenejo and Roger Solapco.

Both remained at large although two of their cohorts in the Galleria robbery—Wily Enriquez and Erenio dela Cruz—were arrested in Iloilo City and charged with robbery and homicide.

Six more men, however, are being sought for their involvement in the March heist which left a security guard dead and five other men wounded.

The robbers struck as two security guards were escorting a bank teller who was about to deliver money to a moneychanger’s shop in the mall’s basement.

According to Monsalve, the EPD managed to identify Montenejo and Solapco through case files and photographs it had requested from the QCPD which was in charge of investigating the Galleria robbery.

A crosscheck showed that the two were also among the five armed men who stole P550,000 in cash from two bank tellers at the Robinsons Metro East basement last Friday.

In a related development, the Pasig police said they were eyeing the possibility that the Metro East heist robbers got some help from an insider based on the footage taken by one of the mall’s closed circuit television cameras.

This was after a portion of the footage showed one of the mall security guards letting the robbers inside the mall without checking them or their belongings first.

In addition, he left the exit doors wide open minutes before the robbery occurred.

However, Pasig police officer in charge Supt. Alfredo Calama-an refused to identify the guard, saying he was not yet a suspect.

“Inside job is one possibility but we still can’t draw a conclusion on the matter,” Calama-an told the Inquirer over the phone.

But at the same time, he noted that the actions of the guard, who was manning the exit/entrance used by the five robbers, were suspicious.  “He opened wide the two doors two or three minutes before the shooting erupted,” Calama-an said.

Also, when the gunfire started, the guard ran out of the mall, ahead of shoppers, he added. With Niña Calleja