5 bank guards probed for ‘inside job’

MANILA, Philippines - Five security guards of the Development Bank of the Philippines branch in Muntinlupa will undergo polygraph testing as part of an investigation into the bank break-in discovered last Monday, an official said yesterday.

City police chief Senior Superintendent Conrad Capa also officially declared yesterday that the burglary was, indeed, an inside job.

“The (pieces of) evidence gathered at scene run counter to the guards’ claim the robber entered and escaped through a toilet window,” Capa said.

He said he invited the five guards to subject themselves to a lie detector test and all of them agreed. The test will be conducted by the Southern Police District’s Scene of the Crime Operatives.

An accountant is also under investigation after police officers found out that she had conducted an audit just before the burglary. Investigators said audits are usually done at the end of the month.

Guards Arnel Ramos, Jose Darwin Ignes, Reynaldo Soriano Jr., Eleuterio Soria Jr. and Emilio Tomines were on duty from Thursday to Sunday.

Capa said the break-in, which was discovered Monday morning, might have taken place during the long weekend. The total amount of money stolen from the DBP has yet to be established.

The restroom window’s grills had been cut, but a reenactment showed that the bolt cutter marks left on the grills indicate they had been cut from inside the restroom, which is located in the back of the bank.

Pieces of fried chicken – apparently eaten by the burglars – were left near the vault, which was opened using acetylene torches.

Investigators also noted that the burglars cut all the cables connected to the bank alarm and covered all four surveillance cameras with rags. They also stole the central processing unit of the computer where the surveillance footage is stored. The reenactment showed that similar CPU units did not fit through the window, contrary to claims by the guards.