Robbers strike at 3 Iloilo town halls

ILOILO CITY—Police have alerted local officials to heighten security measures in their municipal halls after robbers looted a total of P1.2 million from the treasurer’s offices of three towns in northern Iloilo province over the weekend.

The towns—Ajuy, San Dionisio and Concepcion—were among those worst-hit by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) on Nov. 8, 2013, and are still recovering from the devastation.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that the robberies were coordinated and involved one criminal gang. Senior Supt. Cornelio Salinas, provincial police director, noted the similarity in the way the crimes were carried out: all office vaults were opened with crowbars.

“Our investigators are probing deeper because it appears that these are not ordinary robberies,” said Chief Insp. Joseph Almaquer, public information officer of the provincial police.

The robberies were believed to have occurred between Saturday night and early Monday morning when no employees reported for work. Employees discovered the ransacked offices when they came to work on Monday.

Salinas said the investigators would be asking why the security guard assigned to the Ajuy municipal hall and an employee who sleeps at the Concepcion municipal building had failed to detect the robberies.

He said the treasurer’s offices were vulnerable to surveillance because these had glass walls and metal frames. The offices also had one lock each, he noted.

The municipal buildings are about 100 meters from the police stations, according to Almaquer.

Salinas said the robbers could be behind the string of robberies in municipal treasurer’s offices in Negros Occidental province last year. Several months ago, robbers also looted the treasurer’s office of Banate town in Iloilo.