Asian Spirit robbery: Employees ID man from rogues' gallery

The police believe they have a good lead on the group that robbed the office of Asian Spirit along Arch. Reyes Ave. last Saturday afternoon.

Theft and Robbery Section chief Alexis Relado said yesterday that two employees of the airline have picked from the rogues' gallery the photo of one person, who they said "looked similar" to one of the robbers.

The police would be inviting the two people so that they can make a cartographic sketch of the robbers that can further help identify them.

Relado said that they have already made recommendations to the management of the airline company about their security precautions to prevent a repeat of the incident where P120 thousand was reportedly taken.

Among the recommendations was the installation of a security camera.

It took the police 30 minutes to respond after last Saturday's heist since the employees were not able to immediately call them due to both fear and confusion.

The police also noted several similarities with recent heists of lending firms most especially on how the robbers announced that they were "vigilantes" when they declared a hold up.

The same modus operandi was used during the October 5 robbery of A-1 Micro Finance Inc. and Asialink Corp., which took place within 20 minutes of each other.

Worried that there would be more similar incidents, Cebu City Councilor Edgardo Labella wants the police to continue closely monitoring robbery groups and not focus too much to keeping peace and order for the elections.

Labella said that the gun ban for the election period does not seem to faze the robbers.

The North District Councilor explained that the police might be too engrossed with their duties ensuring a safe campaign and election period and the robbers would take advantage of this.

In relation to the incident, several people have also expressed their worry that there is an inadequate number of policemen here most specially that the augmentation forces who were detailed for the 12th ASEAN Summit have already left Cebu.

Police statistics reveal that of the 18 bank heists last year wherein approximately P27.5 million were taken, only one took place in Cebu. "The aforementioned criminals seem to appear not bothered by the election campaign period gun ban, hence, even the stringent enforcement of the said law will allegedly not prevent them from pursuing their nefarious designs," Labella said.

The councilor further contended that one of the reasons why organized robbery gangs tend to be daring in hitting banks is the reported lackadaisical performance of concerned law enforcement agencies to take appropriate action in prosecuting those involved in the heists.

Many security specialists, he said, opine that the certainty of getting caught and getting punished is the best deterrence to bank robberies.

Labella said that any sign of resurgence of bank robberies in Cebu City will not only puncture the local peace and order but would also ominously cast a bleak atmosphere for the growth and development of the city's business industry. - Joeberth M. Ocao and Flor Z. Perolina