EPD: CCTV video shows mall robbers’ faces

MANILA, Philippines - The faces of three men who robbed a jewelry store in a Mandaluyong City mall Saturday night are clearly seen on surveillance camera footage of the heist, the Eastern Police District (EPD) said yesterday.

EPD director Chief Superintendent Miguel Laurel said they are coordinating with police officers in Parañaque and Manila to help identify the robbers. He said two malls, one in Bicutan and the other in Divisoria, “were hit sometime last year by suspects using hammers.”

Laurel said it was too early to say whether the suspects in the Mandaluyong heist are members of the Martilyo Gang, named after the Filipino word for hammer.

Laurel told Superintendent Remus Medina, EPD intelligence chief, to dispatch police teams to go after the robbers, whose “clear faces” were shown on the footage taken by the mall’s closed-circuit television camera.

He added that one of the robbers was injured, as evidenced by bloodstains showing the route the robbers had taken after hitting the jewelry store at the mall’s upper ground floor.

Shoppers ran toward the nearest exits after the robbers fired their guns into the air when security guards noticed the robbery. Mayor Benhur Abalos said the robbers blended in with the crowd to escape.

He said no hostage-taking had occurred and the incident did not disrupt mall operations as only one section was closed to the public.

City police chief Senior Superintendent Florendo Quibuyen said the surveillance footage is vital to their investigation. “We already distributed (printouts) to all operating units” of the National Capital Region Police Office, he said in an interview.

He said the owner of the jewelry store promised to provide investigators a copy of the inventory of the jewelry taken by the robbers.

Quibuyen called on mall officials to review their security procedures, noting that the guards did not notice the robbers sneaking their guns into the mall.

“Those suspicious-looking persons should be frisked strictly, especially those going through entrances seldom used by mall-goers,” he said.