Mindanao group eyed in Bogo rob

Intelligence operatives investigating last Tuesday's robbery of the Land Bank branch in Bogo town said yesterday they are verifying reports that the group that pulled off the heist was composed of robbers from Cebu but a Mindanao-based group, headed by a former military man, had financed its operation.

Authorities are also looking into reports linking the Tuesday incident to a foiled robbery of an armored car from Land Bank-Bogo to Cebu City last June 8 when armed men blocked and fired at the armored car, which was then carrying a large amount of money. The bank employees inside the vehicle decided not to stop and sped off instead to escape from the robbery attempt.

The incident was allegedly not entered in the Bogo Police blotter but investigators are now verifying if those involved were the same people who struck the bank last Tuesday.

However, Insp. Juanito Enguerra, chief of the Provincial Special Operations Group, yesterday refused to comment on these raw reports saying they are still deep in their investigation of the case. He would not say also if the investigation is still confined in Cebu or has been expanded to other provinces. But Enguerra confirmed that 10 people were yesterday picked up and brought to the National Bureau of Investigation for identification by two witnesses-now under the protection of the Bogo Police-to see if any of them could possibly be among the robbers.

The two witnesses failed to identify any from the 10 but they positively identified the green Kawasaki KMX motorcycle that the bank robbers had used in their escape, said Enguerra.

The police had already recovered the motorcycle and they are now looking for the other car of the robbers, a maroon Nissan Vanette. There were witnesses who were able to record the plate number of the car and a check later at the Land Transportation Office showed it was registered in Tarlac province. Enguerra said the 10 people were later put on a line-up at the NBI, this time before five bank employees and two bank guards for identification. He said he is still waiting for the results of that line-up, adding that the 10 were already sent back to the Bogo police for another line-up before witnesses there who saw the robbers flee from the bank.

The ten bank personnel were also subjected to a lie detector test to see if they were telling the truth on the circumstances of the robbery, in the wake of an earlier theory that the robbers might have connections with bank personnel.

NBI executive officer Ernesto Macabare refused to divulge the names of the bank personnel who underwent the polygraph, and the results of such test. He only said that the NBI is assisting the police upon the request of Governor Gwen Garcia.

Garcia earlier expressed disappointment over the slow pace of the police investigation, especially on the delay of having sketches of the suspects that would help authorities in the investigation and arrest of the robbers.