Probers enhancing CCTV image of Pasig mall robbers

MANILA, Philippines - Police investigators are enhancing the images on the video footage that caught four of the six men who staged the P550,000 robbery at the Robinson’s Metro East mall in Pasig City last June 22.

The images are blurred but Eastern Police District (EPD) director Chief Superintendent Miguel Laurel expressed confidence that they could identify the robbers once the video footage is “enhanced.” The 15-minute robbery was caught by the mall’s closed-circuit television cameras.

Mall officials have handed over several videos of the robbery to Laurel, who sought the help of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to enhance the images of the robbers.

Senior Superintendent Gilbert Sosa, chief of the CIDG’s cybersecurity division, is working on enhancing the images.

“Once the images of the suspects are enhanced, we will compare them with our rogue gallery on bank robbers for their immediate identification,” said Laurel, adding that “a massive manhunt would follow.”

Laurel refused to identify which particular group is behind the Metro East robbery “as we are still… gathering evidence.”

Common denominators

Superintendent Remus Medina, EPD intelligence chief, earlier said the modus operandi employed by robbers at the Metro East mall and the Robinson’s Galleria last March 29 were almost the same.

The foiled bank robbery at the Alabang Town Center in Muntinlupa City, in which a robber and a security guard were killed, is the handiwork of the same group, he said.

Medina said the robbers in the twin Robinson’s robberies only brought handguns into the malls because they can be easily hidden from security guards.

In the P14-million robbery at the moneychanger’s shop at Galleria, the robbers lobbed two hand grenades at the security guards who engaged them in a gunfight, he said.

A security guard was killed in the incident while six others were wounded.

“Their high-powered firearms were usually kept in their backup vehicles. They are ready to engage in a gunbattle policemen pursuing them,” Medina said.

QCPD sends probe records

The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) has provided the EPD records of the Galleria heist suspects, including photos of two suspects still at large: Alexander Montenejo and Roger Solapco.

Their alleged cohorts, Wily Enriquez and Erenio de la Cruz, were arrested in April and charged in court. A source said it was possible that Montenejo and Solapco also participated in the Pasig heist.

“Only four were identified but to pull off something like that, there must have been at least 10 of them,” the QCPD source said of the Robinson’s Galleria heist.

Medina said there were six men involved in the Metro East robbery.

The QCPD source noted that both sets of robbers were in shorts and tried to blend in with the crowd. “To the untrained eye, they appeared as if they were just regular mall-goers. But if you would look at them closely, they acted so unnaturally. Even their clothes appeared brand-new, as if they had just bought them and would use them just during their operations,” the source said.