Cops hunt down Alabang heist, blast suspects

MANILA, Philippines -  Three crack police teams are scouring Metro Manila for the men who robbed a money­changer shop in Alabang Town Center and lobbed a grenade at a nearby bank in Muntinlupa City Friday, an official said yesterday.

Senior Superintendent Conrad Capa, officer-in-charge of the Muntinlupa City police, admitted they have not identified the ones responsible for the twin attacks but noted that “we are closing in on them.”

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) director Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina created Special Investigating Task Group (SITG) Alabang, headed by Capa, to solve the robbery.

Capa said the three police teams under SITG Alabang are checking the background of slain robber Pepito Paler, searching for the owner of a Mitsubishi Lancer (PKR 173) recovered near the crime scene, and counter-checking similar previous robberies.

“We could not release our initial findings as yet because our men are in the field and they might get ‘burned’ while conducting follow-up operations,” Capa said in an interview.

Capa said according to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Paler has three addresses, one of them in General Santos City. Paler’s body remains unclaimed at the Eastern Funeral Homes in Alabang.

The SITG Alabang is also coordinating with the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to determine who owns the Mitsubishi Lancer that was abandoned by the robbers – nobody noticed how many were in the car – along the Alabang-Zapote Road.

The SITG Alabang, he said, is also coordinating with the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) as the modus operandi employed by the robbers is similar to the one employed by the Ozamis robbery gang whose members struck at the Robinson’s Galleria early this year.

Police said a bank teller had just alighted from an armored van to deliver a backpack full of money to the Czarina money­changer shop in the ATC at 10:05 a.m. Friday when Paler and four others announced the heist.

Paler hurled a hand grenade but it did not explode, giving four security guards in the area time to engage the robbers in a shootout. Paler was hit in the head and died on the spot.

The robbers took the backpack left behind by the teller when he ran for safety.

At about the same time, a rifle grenade exploded at the Sterling Bank of Asia, located 150 meters from the mall. Three bank personnel and two security guards were hurt.

Capa believes the explosion at the bank is also the handiwork of the moneychanger shop robbers.