4 armored van guards arrested over missing P2 M

Manila, Philippines - Four security guards were arrested Friday after P2 million was found missing from the armored van they were securing.

Chief Inspector Arturo Paras, chief of the Manila Police District’s crimes against property section, said charges of qualified theft were filed against Wilfredo Palpalatoc, 31; Egardo Avila, 41; Ronald Guillemer, 29; and Amador Manimtim, 48, all of Royal Mandarin Security Services Corp.

In a complaint filed by the firm’s general manager Elizer Tomas, 59, the four were tasked to collect the daily earnings of several branches of a drug store in Metro Manila. The money, placed in a vault in the armored van, was supposed to be deposited in a Makati City bank.

Senior Police Officer 2 William Gondranios said the four went to the drug store branch at a mall in Ermita. He said Palpalatoc parked the van in an unusual way, the front of the vehicle facing the door. The standard procedure is for the rear of the van to face the door to make the delivery of the money easier and faster, Gondranios said.

The guards said after collecting the money from the drug store, they found that the van’s back door was already unlocked and the vault open. An inventory of the vault’s contents showed that the money in the vault was short by P2 million.

When questioned, Palpalatoc admitted parking the van the wrong way. He also left the armored van for almost five minutes, a violation of the standard operating procedure, according to Gondranios.

Avila, who is in charge of the van’s back door, told police he was sure the door was locked when he accompanied the other guards into the mall. Manimtim said he also locked the safety vault.

Police said they found a duplicate key of the safety vault near the front wheel of the armored van. Gondranios said only Manimtim knew the combination of the lock of the safety vault.

Scene of the Crime Operations personnel lifted fingerprints inside and outside the armored van. Results of the SOCO probe were not yet available as of press time.