Lawyer: Jewelry transport was confidential operation

The company wanted a confidential operation in transporting their jewelry.

This was M. Lhuillier lawyer Bayani Atup’s explanation why they didn’t coordinate with the Lapu-Lapu police when two managers brought in jewelry from Davao City last Wednesday.

“The less people know how we move our items, the better it is for our security. This incident has not happened for the past years operations,” Atup said in a phone interview yesterday.

“Karon lang ni sunod-sunod we’re caught off guard (It’s only now that it happened one after the other and we’re caught off guard),” said Atup.

Two M. LHuillier managers in Davao City were held up in a taxi after they left the Mactan airport.

Atup vehemently denied insinuations that Wednesday’s robbery was staged or scripted.

He criticized police for issuing premature statements to the media before investigating the case.

Based on an initial estimate, Atup said the stolen jewelry taken by the robbers was worth P2 million, excluding the managers’ cellphones and other personal items.

Atup said the company could not afford to damage its reputation by staging a fake robbery.

“Dili na makaayo sa imahen sa kompaniya, do you think we can do that? We are not just a domestic corporation, we are an international corporation. We are operating not only in the Philippines, we are also operating in US, in Asia. Ngano gud intawon magbuhat mi ana”, Atup said over radio dyLA.

The Wednesday holdup was the second since April 7 this year. In March 12, 2008, out-of-town managers of Cebuana Lhuillier were also waylaid by armed men as their van exited the Mactan Airport.

(Cebuana Lhuillier is owned by a another family member. Michel Lhuillier owns M. Lhuillier.)

Atup said that Michel was concerned about the latest holdup and wanted extra security measures to avoid a repeat.

“We will take more drastic and aggressive measures,” Atup said, adding that an internal investigation was underway.

The two Davao managers are on floating status pending the inquiry.

Atup defended the two, saying they were long-time workers in the company and had no derogatory records.

“We’re actually doing internal investigation and we’re also tapping another agency of the government”, Atup said.

The earlier April 7 holdup of M. Lhuillier managers remains unsolved.

Atup also said that the police in Lapu-Lapu failed to make final report on the case.

Asked why company lawyers knew immediately about the robbery last Wednesday, he said the victims were carrying more than one cellphone and contacted the company through their emergency line.

Lapu-Lapu City Police Chief Anthony Obenza said they have identified the group responsible for Wednesday’s heist from an intelligence reports.

He said a pursuit is ongoing.

Obenza asked M. Lhuillier management to cooperate with police and help answer questions about the heist.

For example, how did the robbers know their itinerary, and that the bags of jewelry were placed in the car trunk?

Police are also trying to trace the getaway vehicle , a white Mitsubishi Lancer sedan, with the Land Transportation Office.

If the National Bureau of Investigation is called in as earlier mentioned by Atup, Obenza said he would let the Police Regional Director instruct him how to coordinate with the agency.  Correspondents Jhunnex Napallacan and Norman Mendoza with reports from Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos and Correspondent Gabriel Bonjoc