Lie detector tests for bank guards?

Twelve security guards on duty at the time of the Citibank Center robbery in Makati City las Monday may soon be invited by police for polygraph detectors test, police said yesterday.

Police Officer 2 Ricky Mel Corpuz, of the Makati Police-Theft and Robbery Division, said the security guards could be subjected to lie detector tests to erase suspicion that some of them may have been in cahoots with the 15 heavily armed men who pulled of the heist.

Corpuz said they will be writing a letter to the Philippine National Police-Crime Laboratory and make their request. However, before they can be undertake the test they will have to coordinate with their security agency, the Sun and Shield.

"Before filing the request we have to get their approval. The guards have to be willing because lie detector tests are voluntary," he said.

Makati City police investigators said they cannot understand how 15 armed men were able to pass through the three security doors of the Citibank center. "They should have been stopped from the first or main door."

Meanwhile, Superintendent Jose Gentiles, Southern Police District (SPD) intelligence chief, told The STAR that they have been coordinating with their counterparts in the intelligence community and learned that the group behind the bank robbery was based outside Metro Manila.

"We have not yet identified the group responsible for the robbery, but they belong to an organized crime syndicate. They were also responsible for the Equitable-PCIBank robbery at the corner of Jupiter street and Paseo de Roxas last April," Gentiles said.

He added that with the resources the robbers accummulated from the Citibank robbery and previous heists, there is a possibility they would be able to shorten their preparation time and carry out another robbery soon.

The SPD Intelligence chief said that after the Equitable-PCIBank robbery, it took the armed robbers four months to prepare and hit Citibank. But with more funds in their possession, the syndicate might shorten their preparation.

Meanwhile, Makati City Mayor Jejomar and city police officials met with security officers of various banks at City Hall yesterday to discuss procedures as well as developments in the investigation into the Citibank heist.

During the meeting , a Citibank representative said this is the first time that a branch of the bank has been robbed.

Chief Superintendent Jose Gutierrez, Southern Police District chief, said he just came from a meeting in Camp Crame, wherein a proposal was made to assign some 80 members of the Special Action Force (SAF) to provide added security in the central business district of Makati City.

Each team will have eight members, two of the teams could move inside the district, while the six would be stationed outside the vicinity.

"The rings would not only combat robberies but terrorism as well," Gutierrez said.

They agreed to meet two weeks from now to review the existing memorandum of understanding signed between the police and the Bank Security Management Association (BSMA), the group of security agencies servicing banks.

Among the other developments are the following:

• Police said 20 armed men were involved, using a green Toyota Revo and a white Mitsubishi L-300 and four motorcycles.

• Four suspects have been identified based on file photos and cartographic sketches. They are Eli Roman Perez, Randel Llanos, Rodolfo Leyte and Rodolfo Amistoso.

• Some 55 shells were recovered from the crime scene, indicating the suspects were already firing shots as they entered the bank.

In discussions yesterday, security officers appealed to the police to create a task force against robberies, just like the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER) unit.

BSMA president Charlie Tagana of IBank said they were satisfied with the outcome of yesterday afternoon’s meeting. "It was productive. We were able to meet the objectives and tackled the difficulties of robberies and the delineation of work with the police."

Tagana said they would coordinate with their principals on the proposal of Binay for the banks to shoulder the reward money for the speedy resolution of bank robberies.