While the police were busy assisting in the deployment of Marines in Metro Manila's shopping malls Monday, three motorcycle-riding armed men grabbed the P103,000 payroll of a metal shop in Mandaluyong City.
Superintendent Rodolfo Tutaan, Mandalyong City police chief, said Paulino Peralta and Jonathan Lawig, both employees of the RRC Wood and Metal Shop located along Bernal street in Barangay Rosario, Pasig City, were on board a taxi when the robbers blocked their path at about 2:30 p.m.
Peralta and Lawig had just withdrawn P103,000 in payroll money from the Far East Bank branch in Mandaluyong City. One of the suspects alighted from the motorcycle and pointed a handgun at the head of the taxi driver and announced the holdup. He took the payroll money from Peralta and Lawig and then sped off.
Tutaan said elements of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) rushed to the crime scene at the corner of San Joaquin and San Pedro streets in Barangay Plainview but the robbers were already gone.
According to Tutaan, they believe the suspects were the same persons who have pulled off a number of robberies on bank customers in the city.