Police consider ‘inside job’ angle in Jaro bank robbery
Police admitted yesterday that they are considering “inside job” behind the Barotac Viejo Rural Bank – Jaro Branch robbery.
Jaro Police Station commander Chief Insp. Orly Gabinete said that with the way the robbery was carried out, inside job is not a farfetched angle.
“There were lots of circumstances that would lead us to believe of an inside job. There were things that, supposedly, only an employee or someone within the company knew but that information was also known to the suspects,” Gabinete said.
For one, the Jaro PNP chief said that the suspects only carted P1.5 million from the bank’s vault.
They left a substantial amount – around P360,000 – untouched inside it.
“The suspects apparently knew that once the money will be swept clean down to the base of the vault, the alarm would sound off,” Gabinete noted.
On the day of the break in, it was gathered that the bank’s cashier, Cecile Tugbang, cashed out P50,000 from the vault.
Instead of closing the vault with money in it, she allegedly left it open.
“Tamad na daw siya nga mag-open once she needs the money,” Gabinete said following her talk with Tugbang.
With the vault equipped with a time-delay lock, it will take some 10 minutes before it will open once the correct number combination was made.
But with the vault already opened, the time-delay system was disabled.
“For security reasons, knowing that there was a substantial amount of money, the vault was supposedly closed,” Gabinete pointed out.
It was gathered that the deposits are insured with the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC).
Gabinete also revealed that they are trying to match the cartographic sketch of the suspects with the pictures of robbery suspects operating in the city and province of Iloilo.
Initially, police investigators are looking at a robbery group, with string of robbery cases under them, as the suspects behind the bank robbery.
Even earlier, police investigators said that the robbery was no work of a neophyte.
In fact, it could have been an organized and well-planned operation by a group which has connections with other robbery suspects operating in the city and province of Iloilo.
Prior to the robbery, reports of men who were deemed conducting surveillance operations was noted.
It was probably during these stakes out that they knew about the “loose security measures” the bank adopted.
Chief Insp. Hilarion Roga of PNP Regional Crime Laboratory’s SOCO team noted the lack, or the absence, of security guard services of the particular branch of Barotac Viejo Rural Bank Branch.
Further, there were also no closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, which might help in identifying the suspects and knowing the events during the robbery.
“It could have been a big help in our investigation if they had a CCTV camera,” Gabinete said noting that way before the robbery transpired, he already advised the management over its “weak” security measures.
On the day of the robbery, the bank opened at around 9:00 in the morning.
And again, like the normal days, only cashier Cecile Tugbang and loan officer Hereberto Agreda were the employees during the opening hour.
The suspects allegedly posed as bank depositors.
Immediately after the first client finished the bank transaction, the two armed men entered the bank and declared a hold-up.
At gunpoint, the victims were hogtied.
Their mouths were also sealed with a masking tape.
The suspects then told the employees to open the vault.
Quickly, the suspects swept the vault with some P1.5 million.
Carrying their loots placed on backpack, the suspects left the bank premises on board a motorcycle and sped off towards Leganes town, Iloilo.
