Bloodiest bank robbery in Philippine history

by jayr_patron | May 18, 2008 at 09:15 pm

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Bank robberies have fallen sharply since the start of the year. However, criminals revert to a new modus operandi--targeting bank clients after having done substantial cash withdrawals.

In just the last week, there have been six cases of after-banking-transaction-related robberies in Metro Manila and nearby provinces, which took the lives of more than a dozen civilians and police authorities. In one of these cases, the most gruesome murder of innocent men and women inside a Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) branch in cabuyao, Laguna, bringing the bank robbery trend back since its halt last February.

Nine bank employees were summarily executed, one bullet each on the head. The tenth victim, branch manager Isagani Pastor, died two days later in the hospital.

The Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.(RCBC), whose branch in Cabuyao, Laguna, was robbed, put up P1 million or half the bounty. The Friends of the Philippine National Police contributed P800,000 while Laguna Gov. Teresita Lazaro and Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. threw in P100,000 each to help ferret out information on what could be the bloodiest bank robbery in the country’s history.

In an effort to curb this trend, NCRPO director Geary Barias ordered the implementation of one-strike policy.

Following the deaths of 10 people in the bank robbery in Laguna last Friday, the National Capital Region Police Office will start to implement a one-strike policy against police commanders in their areas of jurisdiction to ensure that there will be no repeat of the bloodbath in Metro Manila, NCRPO Chief Geary Barias said Monday.

Barias said the one strike policy would mean station or area commanders would be relieved from their posts once a bank robbery occurs in their area.

Barias said they were implementing the policy even if there has been no incident of bank robbery in Metro Manila since February. But he added that robbers have a new modus operandi in which they attack clients who have just withdrawn money from the bank.