Parañaque bank robbed

Heavily armed robbers struck when policemen supposedly on high alert were not looking and barged into a bank in Parañaque last night, wounding its lone security guard and carting away P100,000 worth of personal belongings.

The three robbers armed with pistols and an M16 rifle reportedly tried to force the manager to open the vault of the Bank of the Philippine Island’s branch on Ninoy Aquino Avenue but the alarm system suddenly went off, prompting them to scamper out and escape.

The suspects had to content themselves with the assorted jewelry and cash in the bag of bank manager Imelda Garcia estimated to be worth P100,000.

The robbery came amid heightened alert and intensified police visibility all over Metro Manila this Christmas season.

Parañaque police chief Superintendent Ruben Catabona reported to Southern Police District director Chief Superintendent Jose Guttierez that the incident happened at about 6:10 p.m. while only Garcia, 40, security guard Glen Desierto, 25, and janitor Gregorio Magnita, 50, were left in the bank.

Two of the three suspects reportedly waited for Desierto to open the door to check on the manager’s car parked outside. He was shot in the right leg and rendered unconscious then dragged near the manager’s table. The third suspect waited outside as a lookout. The janitor, was told to lie on the floor at gunpoint.

The robbers took the bag of the manager from atop her table, poked a gun to her head and ordered her to open the vault, but the alarm began sounding off. The group escaped on board a Toyota FX van towards Pasay City with their loot and the security guard’s caliber .38 revolver.

The guard has been declared out of danger at the San Juan De Dios Hospital where he was brought for medical treatment.

Police recovered two bullets and a deformed slug from the scene. Carthographic sketches of the robbers have been made by police. – Jose Aravilla