CEBU CITY -- Eight heavily armed men, three of them wearing police athletic uniforms, robbed the Gen. Maxilom Ave. branch of Fooda Saver's Mart past Sunday midnight.
The robbers have carted away coins worth about P100,000 and other valuable items.
The robbers, who were carrying M16 rifles and short firearms and using two vehicles, deceived the store's security guards by pretending to be policemen responding to an indiscriminate firing alarm.
They confronted the three guards, identified as Geoffrey Luna, Jesse Rey Bahinting and Niel Zoren Boquecosa, and took away their revolvers supposedly for inspection before declaring the holdup.
Two of the three were stripped of their upper uniforms, which were then worn by two suspects who posted themselves outside the establishment.
No shots were fired and the robbers did not hurt any of the guards during the robbery, which lasted for two hours.
Using a bull cutter, the suspects destroyed the padlocks of the roll-up metal door before smashing the glass door using a sledgehammer, giving them access to the establishment.
The robbers had to drag the extremely heavy steel vault containing coins from the Customers' Service Counter where it was kept to the vehicle, as indicated by the black lines on the store's white tiles.
They also took several pieces of watches from the glass display case of one of the tenants and cellular phones left behind for repair or open-line to Virlac Cellular Phone Shop, which occupies a space at the ground floor.
Investigation
The establishment was equipped with security cameras but the images captured were only the lights from the flashlights the robbers used, Chief Inspector Arnel Banzon, one of the responding police officials, said.
Policemen and owners of the establishment, however, waited for five hours before personnel of Scene of the Crime Operations (Soco) arrived, prompting calls to investigate the delay in the response.
Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Patrocinio Comendador said they are now verifying the specific group involved in the burglary, noting that it could be the handiwork of robbers based outside of Cebu province.
He said the manner of execution in Monday's robbery resembled that of the January 2007 heist of Dranix Distributors Inc. in Barangay Basak-San Nicolas.
In that heist, five men, wearing police uniforms arrived at Dranix and announced they would conduct an inspection but ended up killing a security guard and robbing the firm of about P1 million.
Luna described the suspects as speaking in hard Tagalog and Bisaya and most of them were heavy-built and in their forties.
Investigation Detective Management Branch Chief George Ylanan said that as part of their investigation, the Fooda security guards will be asked to undergo polygraph test.
Inspection
Luna Bahinting and Boquecosa of GDS Security Agency said they were in their posts at the back of the store along Gotianuy St. when two cars, a black Pajero and a white L300 van, arrived at 12:20 a.m.
Bahinting told Sun.Star Cebu that three men, who were carrying M16 rifles and wearing the light blue athletic round-neck T-shirts of the police with yellow PULIS print on it, approached them.
One of them, described as Tagalog-speaking, told the security guards to turn over their firearms for inspection as they were responding to an indiscriminate firing alarm.
After smelling the muzzles of the .38 revolvers, the suspects told the three guards to get inside the Pajero and there told them not to react violently as they were planning to rob the establishment.
Guide
The robbers, with the three guards in tow, then disembarked from the car and headed to the customer's entrance at the Gotianuy side.
Boquecosa and Luna were told to stay inside near the shattered glass door, while Bahinting was used by the other robbers as "guide" in locating the cash vault.
Bahinting said he denied knowing where the cash were kept but accompanied the robbers, who roamed the dark insides of the establishment for about two hours using flashlights.
The robbers only left after one of them, who was posted outside, shouted "parak (police)," probably referring to a team of Fuente policemen patrolling the area and looking for street kids sniffing rugby.
Bahinting said he called up the police hotline 166 while the other guards ran to the police team and called for assistance.
The Theft and Robbery Section received the call at 2:20 a.m.
The security guards, however, said they failed to trace where the suspects were headed and the plate numbers of the cars.
Lucy de Guzman of Fooda Saver's Mart was thankful that nobody was hurt and said an inventory is still being conducted to determine the exact amount taken.
Training
Comendador stressed the importance of hiring guards that has undergone proper trainings after his office found out that Luna, Boquecosa and Bahinting did not have licenses to work as security guards.
He said this indicated that they have not undergone training, which makes them incapable of securing an establishment.
Comendador said he will leave it up to Regional Security Agencies and Guards Supervision Unit (RSAGSU)-Central Visayas to take action on the matter.
The Fooda Saver's Mart resumed business around noon Monday.
Fooda Robbed
Originally Posted by cebucarstuffs
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