Teller hurt in bank heist

A bank teller was hurt after at least 10 heavily armed individuals held up a Bank of Commerce branch in Quezon City before escaping with P1 million in cash yesterday morning.

The teller was identified as Rhodora de Joya, a teller at Bank of Commerce branch located at corner of West Avenue and Zamboanga street in Barangay Nayong Kaunlaran. She was hit by a bullet after the suspects fired shots while fleeing the premises.

Senior superintendent Procopio Lipana, chief of the Central Police District-Criminal Investigation Unit (CPD-CIU), said five persons, one of them a woman, entered the bank posing as clients at around 10:15 a.m.

Minutes later, a white Mitsubishi L-300 van with license plate PKZ-379 arrived at the bank. Four men alighted from the vehicle and immediately overpowered the bank’s security guard and then seized his service firearm.

Lipana said the guard, whose name was withheld, managed to shut the door while being ganged up by the suspects. However, the suspects inside the bank opened it to allow their companions to enter.

Once inside, the armed suspects announced a holdup.

The suspects were able to take cash from the counters, but failed to open the vault to get more money, police said. It was learned that an armored van parked in front of the bank had just deposited money into the bank vault.

After some 10 minutes, the suspects sped off on board the L-300 van and a red Nissan Sentra (DFH-834), which was later found abandoned along Gen. Lim street.

Police said the suspects fired shots while escaping, hitting one bank teller.

Chief Inspector Rudy Jaraza, head of the District Police Intelligence Unit that conducted a follow-up operation to track down the suspects, said the suspects transferred to a blue Hyundai Grace van and another red car.

Metro police chief Director Ricardo de Leon ordered an investigation why security measures failed to stop the suspects from staging a bank robbery, the second in the area of the Baler police station this year.

"The areas of responsibility of our walk the beat and mobile patrols are well-outlined and they have been designated to make the rounds on specific areas for immediate response," said De Leon. "Our response needs to be constantly re-adjusted to address the ever-changing modes or operations of these crime groups."

De Leon directed Chief Superintendent Napoleon Castro, director of the CPD, to coordinate with bank officials in the conduct of a thorough probe for the speedy identification of the suspects and their arrests.

He also ordered Castro to determine the response time of the CPD operatives to the robbery.

The Metro police chief also urged the bank officials to cooperate fully with the CPD probe pointing out that their assistance is vital in modifying security measures employed by the National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) to foil heists that criminal syndicates may stage in the future.

According to a reliable police source, authorities may have difficulty identifying the syndicate behind this bank robbery because the bank’s security camera, which could have captured the faces of the suspects, was not activated when the heist took place.

However, both Lipana and Jaraza said they believe the group involved in this bank robbery could be the same group that hit a Banco De Oro branch in SM City North-EDSA last April 5. – With Non Alquitran