EDITORIAL - A challenge by robbers

Early Saturday afternoon, four men made off with P40,000 cash from an LBC outlet in Moalboal. As most robberies go, the P40,000 take was peanuts. In a premier province like Cebu where robberies have become part of the price of progress, a robbery like that hardly makes the news, except on lean days.

But for Cebuanos abreast with what is going on in their turf, that robbery was big news, not because of the amount taken, but because it was the fourth on an LBC branch in a month. It is a kind of frequency and regularity that mystifies, and in fact arouses suspicion.

LBC may be a leading courier company but it is not the kind of company that would have plenty of cash at any given time. The only reason anyone can think of why robbers seem to gravitate toward its branches is because they probably think they can easily get away with it.

And why do robbers think they can easily get away with it? Is it because they think the security in these outlets pose no threat and are therefore not a problem to them? Is it possible that the robbers know exactly which branch and what time to strike?

The first robbery can probably be dismissed as tough luck. But after the second robbery, a big company like LBC that is run professionally ought to have sat up and said, hey, what is going on, maybe we need to plug certain loopholes in our security.

By the third robbery, a big company like LBC should really start getting alarmed. It would have started reviewing not just its security but, more importantly, start wondering whether there is a deliberate attempt to target it?

On the other hand, the same goes with the authorities. After the seeming pattern has been established, the authorities should have started asking similar questions of themselves, if they are really intent on doing their jobs. Robberies that occur with striking regularity should make the police sit up and take notice.

Even without LBC asking for help, law enforcers worth their salt would feel challenged by the occurences. What is happening is not just a security problem of LBC. It is of robbers actually thumbing their noses at the police and insulting them. Are the police up to their jobs and their honor?