The National Food Authority North District Office in Valenzuela City lost an undetermined amount of cash during a heist past midnight yesterday, which was staged by seven heavily armed men who introduced themselves as police officers.
Valenzuela City police chief Senior Superintendent Ranier Idio said the suspects, aboard two vehicles, entered the NFA North District compound through the back gate at around 1:35 a.m.
They knocked on the gate manned by security guard Romeo Casta and introduced themselves as security guard inspectors from the Philippine National Police-Security Agencies and Guards Supervisory Division in Camp Crame.
Casta, of the Lockheed Security Agency, said the suspects were wearing black police uniform and were armed with M-16 Armalite rifles and .45-caliber pistols.
They told the guard they were to inspect the duty security guards of the NFA office at ACA Compound in Malanday, Valenzuela City but while Casta was about to ask clearance from his superior using his handheld radio, one of the men barged in and disarmed Casta of his 12-gauge shotgun.
The other suspects followed and they also disarmed all the security guards of their .38-caliber service revolvers.
They ordered the guards to follow them to the administrative building where they chanced upon NFA duty officer Moises Pineda at his office.
The suspects hogtied the guards and Pineda.
The suspects ransacked the administration offices and some of them went to the cashier’s office, where two safety vaults were located.
“They successfully opened one of the two vaults and also rummaged through the cashier’s drawer,” Senior Police Officer 2 Jesus Sagisi of the Valenzuela City police investigation unit, told The STAR.
As of press time yesterday, Sagisi said they could not yet determine how much money the suspects had taken.
The robbers escaped through the same gate they entered, taking with them .38-caliber revolvers, one shotgun and four handheld radios.
“One of the suspects’ getaway vehicles was only described as similar to an Isuzu Trooper, colored black but witnesses failed to jot down its plate number,” Sagisi said.
The Northern Police District-Scene of the Crime Operatives, led by Senior Inspector Benigno Asilar, processed the crime scene and recovered a tennis bag containing a loaded M-16 magazine. – Pete Laude