Moneychanger chain targeted by robbers

MANILA, Philippines - The moneychanger shop that was supposed to receive a cash delivery from a bank during the mall robbery in Ortigas had been the target of a number of heists in the past, the head of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) bared.

In an interview late Friday, QCPD director Chief Superintendent Mario dela Vega said police records showed that other branches of Sanry’s Money Changer had been robbed in the past few years.

QCPD deputy director for operations Senior Superintendent Joel Pagdilao said the last robbery was at a branch of the moneychanger shop in Pasay City last year. 

But unlike last Thursday’s robbery at Robinson’s Galleria, the one last year involved suspects who declared the heist inside the shop. 

Another police source said three to four robberies had involved the same moneychanger shop chain since 2010. 

The robbery at Robinson’s Galleria on Thursday claimed the life of a security guard of Security Bank and left six others wounded.

At around 10:30 a.m., an entourage of bank personnel was supposed to deliver money to a branch of Sanry’s inside the mall. 

Before that, bank personnel had already delivered money to another branch of the moneychanger shop in the same mall.

A source said the first delivery was worth P2 million, indicating that the second delivery, which was taken by the robbers, could also be worth P2 million. 

At least six men were said to have staged the bloody mall heist and three of them were seen on surveillance cameras as they stormed out of the mall after the robbery.

Dela Vega said they were looking into similarities between the robbery at Robinson’s Galleria and an armored van heist at Alabang Town Center in February.