CEBECO loses over P500T to robbers

CEBU, Philippines - Over half million pesos was carted away by five unidentified robbers from the satellite office of Cebu Electric Cooperative II in Poblacion, Tabogon town last Saturday.

Police investigators are looking at the possibility of an inside job in the incident where the robbers casually walked inside the CEBECO II office, disarmed the security guard, and fled with P554,000 from the cashier.

SPO3 Sonny Ceniza, desk officer of Tabogon Police Station, said they learned of the robbery incident from the habal-habal drivers.

Ceniza said that security guard Tirso Montero, 42, was unsuspecting to the five robbers when they entered the CEBECO II satellite office because they pretended to be customers.

Montero was later disarmed of his 12 gauge shot gun by one of the robbers while the others pointed their guns at the tellers forcing Felix Purgnaria, Joseph Dignos and Lindey Ursal to surrender their cash collections.

One of the five robbers was left outside to serve as lookout. Ceniza said it only took two minutes for the robbers to execute the robbery before leaving onboard three motorcycles waiting outside.

The police immediately conducted roadblocks hoping to arrest the suspects but failed. According to Ceniza, the robbers were not wearing anything to conceal their identity, an indication that they could either be professionals or not from Cebu.  (FREEMAN)