Rob gang hits bank in Pasay

A group of bank robbers struck at noon yesterday carting away at least P100,000 from a Union Bank branch along Taft Avenue in Pasay City, the second bank heist in Metro Manila this year.

Southern Police District director Chief Superintendent Wilfredo Garcia said five suspects, including a woman, posed as clients and disarmed the lone security guard of the bank before announcing the heist. The suspects were carrying short firearms.

The suspects immediately proceeded to two tellers from whom they took the cash. They failed to get cash from the bank’s vault.

They fled on foot toward Libertad street following the heist that took place in less than three minutes, police said.

Apart from the cash, the suspects also took the caliber .38 service revolver of the guard identified as Roger Lee and some P900 from a bank client who was about to make a withdrawal.

Witnesses in the area told investigators that they also noticed a male lookout who followed the fleeing suspects on board a motorcycle with unknown plates.

The city police station is only a few meters away from the bank, but no policemen responded to the incident because the bank employees failed to use the alarm that would have called the attention of lawmen.

Investigators also had hard time identifying the suspects because of the poor monitor resolution of the closed circuit TV system which was able to record the incident.

Police once again blamed the bank’s management for having only one security guard in the establishment.

"It seems that Union Bank is the favorite target of robbers because they really lack security," said city police chief Senior Superintendent Rosendo Franco, who stressed that other branches of the same bank in neighboring cities had also fallen prey to robbers last year.

Franco told reporters that the lone security guard and other witnesses have been invited at the station.

"We will look at photos and see if they are be able to identify any of the suspects," he stressed.

However, police expressed their frustration and said it would have been easy for them to catch the robbers, who only walked from the bank after the heist.

"If only the bank employees had been able to activate the alarm, the suspects would not have escaped that easily," Franco said.

The city police chief said the suspects would have been cornered by policemen who were patrolling nearby major roads at the time of the incident.

Just the other day, Metro police chief Deputy Director General Avelino Razon Jr. was proudly reporting during a consultative meeting with various government agencies that there had only been one bank robbery reported in the past three months.