Thieves burgle armored van in Manila

MANILA, Philippines—Three security guards and a roving teller were charged late Friday night with qualified theft after they allegedly allowed members of the “bukas kotse gang” to steal some P2 million of the day’s earnings of a drugstore chain from their armored van in Manila.

The four men claimed that robbers snuck into the armored van, which they had left unattended for four to five minutes as they made their collection from the Mercury Drugstore branch at the Robinson’s Place mall on Adriatico Street in Ermita, and looted the vault inside the vehicle.

But investigators of the Manila Police District theft and robbery section found their statement incredible and recommended the filing of the qualified theft charge at the city prosecutor’s office.

Senior Police Officer 2 William Gondranios, case investigator, identified the suspects as Royal Mandarin Security Services Corp. guards Ronald Guillemer, 29, Wilfredo Palpallatoc, 31, Edgardo Avila, 41,  and 48-year-old roving verifier and teller Amador Manimtim, who were assigned to man the Armored Transport Plus Inc  van with body number 3365.

Gondranios told the Inquirer that what made the four suspects’ claims unbelievable was his observation that the group violated several standard operating procedures for security guards in escorting an armored van as well as the absence of forced entry into the vehicle and the vault inside.

The theft happened at around 3 p.m. Friday.

Before the incident, the four men had accompanied Manimtim inside the Robinson’s Place mall to collect the day’s earnings of the Mercury drugstore branch that they were supposed to deposit at a bank in Makati.

Gondranios pointed out that inside the armored van, which the group had left unattended, was P2 million worth of the day’s earnings from six Mercury branches around Manila. The money was placed inside the  vault with a combination lock and a key.

When the men returned several minutes after with their cash collection from the drugstore branch inside the mall, they found the rear door open and the vault empty.  Manimtim even alleged that he found a duplicate key to the vault disposed of near the armored van. The discovery prompted them to report the robbery to Royal Mandarin Services Corp. general manager Elizer Tomas.

Tomas immediately sought police assistance and lodged a complaint against the four men at the MPD theft and robbery section after noticing several suspicious lapses committed by the group.

The complainant told the case investigator that the armored van had been parked wrongly, with the front side of the vehicle facing the door of the building instead of the rear side facing the door to enable convenient, easy, and quick access for the transportation of money.

He also pointed out that the armored van was never supposed to be left unattended.  Driver and security guard Palpallatoc, he stressed, should not have left the vehicle.

Tomas said that Guillemer and Palpallatoc had been employed with the security agency for six years while Avila had been with the company for a year and half.  Manimtim belonged to a different agency.

Gondranios told the Inquirer that when he asked the driver why he parked the armored van the wrong way, Palpallatoc only scratched his head and admitted that it was really wrong for him to have done such. He likewise could not say why he had left the van unattended for four to five minutes.

Avila, on the other hand, claimed he was sure he had locked the rear door before he left with his colleagues.  Manimtim, the only person who had the key and knew the combination to the vault inside the van, could not explain how the vault was opened and how a duplicate of the key was made.

Scene of the Crime Office (SOCO) personnel dusted the vehicle for fingerprints and found no sign of forcible entry on the armored van.

The  four security agency personnel remain detained at the MPD theft and robbery section holding cell while police operatives conduct follow-up operations against their alleged cohorts in the P2 million theft.