Text brigade mobilized vs bank thieves

CABANATUAN CITY – A text brigade among law enforcement agencies, bank personnel and the citizenry has been mobilized in Nueva Ecija to avert the possible occurrence of bank robberies similar to last week’s robbery incident in Laguna.

Senior Superintendent Napoleon Taas, provincial police director, said that the text brigade is composed of the Nueva Ecija Provincial Police Office, the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the National Bureau of Investigation, bank personnel and the citizenry.

Taas explained that the text brigade has been constituted into a Joint Anti-Bank Robbery Action Committee (JABRAC) where­in networking will be intensified among the law enforcement agencies by also setting up a surveillance system.

He said that the JABRAC is patterned after a similar group created by PNP chief Director General Avelino Razon Jr. when he was still deputy chief for administration.

The provincial police will carry out the security plan earlier implemented by Taas in 195 banks in the streets of Binondo when he was assigned as district director a few years back.

Taas assured local traders that the Nueva Ecija police had already set up enough police personnel to guard banks from possible assault by bank robbers. This involved heightened police visibility in these areas.

“We have generated enough police movements during my first 100 days as provincial director of Nueva Ecija so we are prepared to deal with this problem of bank robberies,” he said. He said that enough safeguards have been laid out in at least 15 banks which he had earlier inspected in the province.

The security check in banks was laid out by the local police following last week’s bank robbery that left 10 people dead in Cabuyao, Laguna.

At the same time, Taas cautioned local businessmen to exercise vigilance between Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays because it is during these days when criminalities are committed.       – Manny Galvez