Alert guard might have helped foil rob attempt

The vigilance that the police authorities are encouraging the public to exercise might have foiled a robbery.

This as a vigilant security guard of a pawnshop called the attention of policemen to three minors, who he believed were taking notes for robbers in barangay Talamban.

Sr. Insp. Claudio Casiban, officer-in-charge of the Talamban Police Station, told The Freeman that last Sunday, watchman Marcelo Cogtas detailed at Cebuana Lhuillier pawnshop some 50 meters away from the station noticed three minors acting differently.

The said minors reportedly caught the guard's attention after he saw one of them counting and taking note of the people coming in and out of their pawnshop including passersby.

Cogtas informed Analinda Aragon, 32, the Area Technical Assistance Officer of their pawnshop about the suspicious acts of the minors and she relayed the report to the police.

The police did not miss a beat and immediately invited the minors aged 14 to 15 years old and asked what they were doing. One of the minors, who is a daughter of a female barangay tanod of Talamban, told the police that she was hired by a certain Ipay.

She said that Ipay hired her and two others for a period of 15 days to take notes about the people coming in and out of the Cebuana Lhuillier pawnshop and the nearby M. Lhuillier pawnshop and a branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.(RCBC).

She doesn't however know where Ipay lives, but said the two others who were doing the same job were identified as Donna and Gladys.

The mother, who is a tanod of Talamban, told Casiban that a certain Alma Seno, a co-worker at the barangay hall, asked if she wanted her daughter to earn some money.

Casiban said, Ipay promised to pay the minors P200 per day for the job. Their work schedule started at 9 am when the establishments open.

Cogtas, who was on duty, noticed the minor listing something every time someone comes inside their pawnshop and also when people pass the establishment. Later that day, Cogtas saw two more minors bringing in food for the girl and saw them counting and listing people. The two other minors were later found to be her sister and cousin when they were invited by the police.

According to the police, the companions of Ipay, Donna and Gladys were reportedly doing the same at the vicinity of RCBC and M. Lhuillier, but when they saw the minors being taken to the police station they hurriedly left the place.

The police tried to call Ipay through the cellular phone number given to them by the minor's mother and Seno several times that day but there was no answer.

Casiban suspects that there was something fishy on the "job" of the minor since the one who recruited her did not even tell the mother about the purpose and with what company is she connected.

"Nagduda gyud kon nga duna silay dautang plano, either gigamit to sila pagsuta sa sitwasyon diri, kay kung tinarong pa ang iyang pagrecruit misulti ta siya sa iyang purpose ug asa siya konektado," Casiban said.

Casiban commended Cogtas for his vigilance.

The official believed that they might have foiled or prevented a simultaneous robbery or even possibly an attack on the police station.

Last Monday afternoon, robbers carted away an estimated P1.7 million from the Mandaue Extension office of the Visayan Electric Company.

Chief Supt. Silverio Alarcio Jr., chief of the Police Regional Office 7, admitted that there were lapses in the security including lapses on the part of the intelligence community monitoring robbery groups. - Edwin Ian Melecio /NLQ