MANILA, Philippines - Eight men armed with Armalite rifles posed as policemen and robbed a cell phone showroom of P400,000 worth of equipment at the ground floor of a building along Marcos Highway in Pasig City yesterday.
Senior Superintendent Napoleon Villegas, Pasig City police chief, said the suspects, armed with Armalite rifles, arrived at the parking lot of the eight-story Semicon building located along Marcos Highway in Barangay De la Paz at about 3 a.m. yesterday.
The suspects identified themselves as policemen and asked security guards Jay-R Pangalangan, and Christopher Fiesta to let them into the building investigate a reported bomb threat.
However, upon entering the building, the suspects disarmed Pangalangan and Fiesta and four other stay-in security guards, hogtied them then ordered them to lie face down on the floor.
Villegas said the suspects rushed to the upper floors, asking for the unit of the building owner but received no positive response.
“The security guards were only allowed in the lobby of the building. And the tenants do not know on what floor the building owner was staying,” Villegas said.
Unable to find their target, the robbers entered the cell phone showroom on the ground floor of the building, and emptied it of its contents including two laptop computers.
After an hour, the suspects fled in their getaway vehicle. Witnesses were not able to take note of the license plate.
Building administrator Maylin Enriquez, 29, who also owns the cell phone store, said she lost communication equipment amounting to P400,000 to the robbers.
Villegas said the robbery was recorded by a surveillance camera. “But the images of the suspects are blurred and we cannot take a clear look of their faces,” he said, adding that the building owner promised to upgrade their surveillance equipment.
Villegas said they are checking whether the robbers are members of the Alvin Flores robbery gang because they used the same modus operandi, that of pretending to be policemen to gain entrance into buildings. – Non Alquitran