P6.2M gone in seconds

IT TOOK just seconds for a still undetermined number of robbers to take P6.2 million in cash from the crew of an armored van reloading money into a bank’s automated teller machine (ATM) on Remedios Street in Ermita, Manila, before dawn on Monday.

None of the three-man crew—a security escort armed with a shotgun and a 9mm pistol, an ATM technician and the armored van driver—could say what firearms the robbers used or in what direction they fled.

All that Jessie dela Cruz, the van’s security escort, could remember was that he “didn’t want to die yet.”

“Everything happened too fast; [it took] just seconds,” he told the Inquirer in an interview at the Manila Police District’s (MPD) theft and robbery section.

Supt. Marissa Bruno, the MPD’s public information office chief, said that investigators were looking at several angles, including an inside job. She added that the MPD had formed a special investigation task group composed of different units to oversee the probe.

Chief Insp. Alex Rodrigo, head of the MPD theft and robbery section, meanwhile, declined to give details about their ongoing investigation.

According to case officer PO3 Rodel Benitez, the armored van of G4S Cash Solutions Phil. Inc. had just parked in front of the Bank of Philippine Islands branch at Remedios Street corner Taft Avenue when the heist happened.

Dela Cruz said they got to the bank at 2:22 a.m. Monday. Following protocol, he alighted from the van first, scanned the area for several minutes, even shooing away a vagrant before giving ATM technician Arnold Marollano, 21, the signal to come out with the money. On the other hand, armored van driver Rizal de Daulo, 36, remained inside the vehicle.

Dela Cruz said that to reload the ATM, they had to enter the bank because the machine could be opened only from the inside.

The police said that as Marollano was unlocking the bank doors, around two to three men appeared. One of them held a gun to Dela Cruz’s nape, disarmed him and then grabbed the bag containing the money.

The  police said the robbers then fled on a white L300 van whose license plate has yet to be determined.

According to investigators, the bank was the fourth stop on the armored van’s route. Earlier, it had stopped by three other banks, one of these right inside the MPD headquarters on UN Avenue.

The police, however, have yet to establish how the robbers kept track of the armored van’s movements. After the BPI Remedios branch, the three-man crew was scheduled to go to a fifth bank in the Paco area.

As for the timing of the ATM reloading, a G4S Cash Solutions Phil. Inc. representative who asked not to be identified for lack of authority to speak to the media said that it was normal for them to conduct these operations before dawn.