Bank robbers claiming to be 'tuko' traders?

MANILA, Philippines - Eight persons – six men and two women – who were accosted by police for loitering outside a bank in a Quezon City mall Friday afternoon claimed they were there to trade in P5 million worth of geckos (tuko), whose flesh is believed to have medicinal properties, police said Friday night.

Superintendent Audie Madrideo, commander of the Quezon City Police District Station 2, said they could not do anything but release them after guns found on their persons were backed up by papers, and police found no geckos in their possession.

“While we can’t detain and file charges against them at this point, we are still verifying their claims,” Madrideo said in an interview Friday night.

This is the second time in a week that a group of armed persons claiming to be engaged in the illegal trade in geckos was nabbed by the police in Quezon City.

On Aug. 28 in Fairview, another group of men claiming to be engaged in the illegal trade in geckos were arrested at a restaurant. Some of them were charged for illegal possession of firearms.

A highly placed source in the QCPD told The STAR they had been on alert since last week following an intelligence report about a possible bank robbery. Among the eight questioned on Friday, a Mandaluyong policeman, a civilian agent of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), and a civilian each carried a caliber .45 handgun.

“I asked the CIDG agent why they were there for such a long time. He said it was because they were waiting for the tuko that would be arriving,” Madrideo said.

The eight were taken in after guards of the bank, which has a separate entrance from the mall, told police the eight were there since before the bank opened for business at around 9 a.m. Police said the bank entrance faces the mall parking lot, and they found two vehicles parked a few feet from the entrance.

The Mandaluyong policeman and another man claimed they were escorting a woman and her sister who were selling geckos. They were taken in for questioning.

The civilian CIDG agent and three other men were there supposedly to escort another woman, who was supposed to deposit P5 million as payment for the geckos she wished to buy. The CIDG agent and his two companions were accosted. The woman, who was trying to open a bank account but was stopped in the middle of the commotion, ran away. The drivers of the two vehicles also escaped.

Madrideo said they could not file criminal charges against the eight persons even after they admitted to trading in geckos. He said they will look into possible administrative sanctions on the Mandaluyong policeman for his unauthorized escorting of civilians and his admitted involvement in the illegal gecko trade.