Punta Princesa rob could be 'inside job'

Authorities yesterday surmised that the robbery of a lending firm in Punta Princesa Monday night was an "inside job."

This might be possible, said Theft and Robbery Section chief Ambrosio Ibones basing his theory on three premises.

Two men armed only with a knife and a handgun robbed the 24-25 Finance Corporation of about P100,000 in cash, several cellular phones, a gun and a motorcycle at past 9 p.m. last Monday.

The firm, located at the third floor of Villa Lourdes Apartment and few meters away from the police station, was managed by Gina Labroso and with seven workers only-five of who were male, at the time of the robbery.

The security guard was already off duty as early as 6 p.m. but, queerly, left his service firearm-a .38-caliber revolver owned by the Montana Security Agency.

The robbers reportedly tied the seven employees with wires and spent 30 minutes inside trying to locate the money before fleeing while using the firm's motorcycle.

Despite the lengthy period, however, the employees failed to provide clear descriptions of the robbers, and failed to identify them even from the police rogue gallery - a matter suggesting perhaps that the perpetrators could be new in the trade.

These circumstances were the bases of Ibones, saying, "Why were the robbers so familiar with the place despite its being on the interior portion with lots of rooms? Why did they bring seven wires just exactly for the seven employees there at the time? Why did they know the guard left his gun and know where it was placed?"

Ibones said it was very disappointing to know that with only two robbers, one too occupied in tying the employees one after the other, and yet nobody from the five male employees tried to resist or subdue the robbers.

Ibones said he was trying to figure out why one of the robbers, upon entering the place, asked the employees who among them was Labroso. This might suggest that either they knew the manager beforehand or rather "it was an inside job." By Tuesday, the management provided Ibones two pictures of men it had pointed out as the suspected robbers, resulting to a police follow-up operation in Cansojong, Talisay in the evening.

Ibones said they took with them a male employee to the house of one of the suspects the firm had earlier tagged, but when they got there the employee allegedly gave vague identification of the suspect.

"The supposed witness could not be relied upon because, upon seeing the supposed suspect, he only said the man might be the one because the latter was similarly dark-skinned," said Ibones as he called off the operation until a new witness crops up.

Another employee, this time a woman, was set to be taken to Cansojong to also identify the supposed suspect. - Ryan P. Borinaga