EPD: Insider helped Pasig mall robbers

MANILA, Philippines - Eastern Police District (EPD) investigators are trying to determine the identity of an insider they believe helped six men stage the P550,000 robbery at a bank in the Robinson’s Metro East mall in Pasig City Friday, an official said yesterday.

“It appears that the robbers were aware of the time the money would be moved out of the bank and the way the teller would take” to an armored van parked outside the mall, Superintendent Remus Medina, EPD intelligence chief, said in an interview. He said the insider may be a security guard or a Robinson’s Bank official or employee.

Medina said they are also trying to find out why security guards manning the main entrance of the mall failed to detect the handguns smuggled in by the robbers.

The EPD will coordinate with bank management to determine who among its officials, employees and security guards were aware of the scheduled movement of the money into the waiting armored van.

According to Medina, they will also coordinate with the Quezon City Police District (QCPD), whose investigators earlier hinted that an insider helped armed men rob a moneychanger’s shop at the Robinson’s Galleria of P14 million last March 29.

“We will be exchanging information with the QCPD in our effort to pin down the insider, who played a key role in the operation of robbers not only in Metro Manila but also in the provinces,” said Medina.

He earlier alleged that the modus operandi employed by a group of robbers at the Robinson’s Metro East and the Robinson’s Galleria is the same. Police claimed the same group could also be behind the foiled rob try at a bank at the Alabang Town Center in Muntinlupa City.