EDITORIAL - Brazen

What were they thinking? Obviously, they believed they would get away with a successful caper. Yesterday afternoon, at least five men barged into a dealer of Rolex watches in Glorietta 5 in Makati, one of the busiest shopping malls in the country. The robbers were spotted by police security escorts of Taguig City Mayor Freddie Tinga. In the ensuing firefight, one of the robbers was shot dead. The rest managed to get away.

The attempted robbery comes a month after an armored van parked outside Walter Mart in Muñoz, Quezon City was shot up and then robbed of four duffel bags of cash. Police said members of at least two notorious robbery gangs staged the heist.

Anti-crime groups have warned that crimes against property usually increase as the Christmas season approaches. But even Filipinos used to rampant criminality throughout the year are startled by the brazenness of the recent robberies. Yesterday’s robbery was staged in an area where getting away is made difficult by heavy traffic and an abundance of private security guards, traffic aides and cops. The Makati commercial district is one of the most heavily patrolled areas in Metro Manila, but the robbers obviously were undeterred.

As in the Walter Mart heist, the robbers yesterday disguised themselves as cops, wearing black t-shirts marked “Bomb Squad,” fatigue jeans and combat boots. Armed with rifles and using hammers, the men were shattering glass cases containing Rolex watches when members of the Taguig Special Weapons and Tactics team chanced upon them. The robber who was shot dead was armed with an Armalite rifle equipped with an M203 grenade launcher.

Investigators have blamed former police and military officers for a string of daring robberies in recent months. Aware of this fact, both the military and police should devise ways of keeping track of their regular personnel who have left the service, especially those who have been fired or gone AWOL. There should also be a tighter accounting of all weapons issued to or owned personally by all military and police personnel, with stiff disciplinary sanctions imposed on anyone caught lying. High-powered weapons are mainly imported, and there should be a tighter watch on the smuggling of weapons.

The recent robberies indicate two things: obtaining rifles and a grenade launcher in this country is easy, and crooks expect to get away and enjoy their loot. The government should do everything to stop this brazenness.