Police eye inside job in Gotesco Grand Central jewelry store robbery

The Caloocan City police are eyeing a possible inside job in last Saturday’s robbery of a jewelry store in the Ever Gotesco Grand Central Mall which resulted in the death of a security guard and the wounding of three shoppers including a three-year-old girl.

Superintendent Dionicio Borromeo, chief of the Station Intelligence and Investigation Branch (SIIB) of the Caloocan City police, said that they find it absurd that Ikeng Cheng, owner of Seiko Jewelry store, would not cooperate with authorities despite being robbed at least three times already.

"This jewelry store has been a victim of robbery for at least three times already, yet its owner, as well as its employees refuse to cooperate with us," Borromeo said.

Borromeo said the Martilyo Gang struck the store in 1999 and 2000, and stripped it of undetermined quantities of jewelry but its owner refuses to cooperate with authorities ever since.

Borromeo also noted the seeming laxity of the Gotesco Grand Central security guards for failure to detect the weapons and tools used by the suspects in the robbery.

"Police officers are refused entry into the mall if they are carrying guns, but robbers are able to slip in with their weapons and tools," Borromeo said. He added that the police will recommend to Mayor Reynaldo Malonzo the cancellation of the permit to operate of the agency providing security men to Gotesco Grand Central if lapses on their part can be proven.

On the other hand, Gerry Sitjar, chief of the mall’s security guards, employed by the Brotherhood Security Agency, said that additional safety measures have been undertaken to tighten the mall’s security. He refused to comment on the police inside job theory. Sitjar said that security men were also having difficulty getting the cooperation of the robbed jewelry store’s personnel as it is now closed and not one of them, especially its owner could be located.

"We have been trying to coordinate with them but to no avail," Sitjar said.

The suspects, believed to be members of the notorious "Martilyo Gang," threw two hand grenades at shoppers. It caused panic among the mall goers but the grenades failed to explode. The store’s lone security guard, Redem Ademe Beltran, 23, who shot it out with the robbers was killed while three shoppers, Marinette Escobar, 29, and her daughter Maria Louiengie, 3, and Jose del Prado, 23, were hit by stray bullets.

Police were able to arrest three of the alleged perpetrators identified as Moises Francisco, 33, Armando Ababon, 25, and Renerio Tusoy, 25 after they quickly cordoned off the mall minutes after the robbery.