Mabolo cops face probe for alleged negligence

Some policemen assigned to the Mabolo police station will be investigated for their failure to detect the presence of the burglars inside the Cebuana Lhuillier branch along M.J. Cuenco Avenue in barangay Mabolo, last Sunday morning.

Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch chief Paul Labra yesterday said that he will be calling the team of SPO1 Neri Cahimat, that was tasked in the area to verify the incident.

Cahimat's team went to the area after they received a call from Cebuana Lhuillier's main branch in Manila to check their Mabolo branch after the branch's alarm device, which was connected to their main branch, flashed.

Cahimat's team came to check and returned to their headquarters upon seeing that the shop's two padlocks were still intact. What they missed was that three or four burglars had already entered the shop after cutting the fasteners of the roll-down doors and leaving the padlocks untouched.

Once inside the suspects closed the roll-down door and took P80,000 in cash and a Nokia cellphone placed in a vault.

Labra said yesterday that he wants to determine if there was negligence on the part of the responding policemen as they should have conducted a thorough inspection instead of only conducting a visual inspection.

Although Labra also said that most of the time police get false alarms he said these should not be made as a reason for them to no longer perform well in their jobs.