Crime everywhere

HE SAYS
Crime everywhere
By Aldrin Cardon

Daring was first used to describe the thoughtless act of violence by a small group of men — initially believed to be four or a little more — who appeared to have successfully conducted the heist just as the Robinson’s Galleria in Ortigas, Pasig was about to start what should have been an ordinary week’s day.

Categorizing the incident should fall short as an act of terror as one was killed — the security personnel who assisted in the delivery of the money from a bank to the money changer recipient — and six others, mostly innocent pedestrians who were about to go about their usual businesses for the day.

The heist, as police sources later revealed, was quickly completed. Analysts have also likened it to a movie script, except that it was real.

The report by The Daily Tribune’s Gina Peralta-Elorde summed it up in detail: “two armed men donned security guard uniforms and followed the roving tellers of Security Bank located inside the mall. (The two) shot the group of tellers, including the two security guards, upon reaching the Level 1 area of the mall near the Sanry’s Money Changer… The suspects could have followed the roving tellers who delivered cash in another money changer’s booth before they declared the heist at about 10 a.m… The slain security guard was identified as Rodrigo Villa (who) was declared dead at the Medical City. Roderick Reloso, another security guard, remains in critical condition.”

And then, in the same report, she added: “Upon fleeing, the robbers then lobbed two grenades, one of which exploded outside the mall and wounded three bystanders. They were identified as Paul Adrian Sarmiento, Joshua Toniza, and Jeremy Rabe. Both Sarmiento and Toniza have been discharged while Rabe suffered from a broken elbow. The other grenade failed to explode.”

Television and CCTV footages later revealed other details of the heist, including a CCTV capture of four men joining the crowd scampering away from the mall as the result of the chaos. They were seen exiting with a duffle bag supposedly containing the money which they were able to snatch from the bank employees and their guards.

They have also left tell-tale signs of their preparedness to battle pursuing authorities for an even longer time, proofs of which were the unexploded grenade and the gun magazine found later along the route which the criminals used as an escape route.

Official police pronouncement went only as far as this. There are no clear leads yet as of this writing, and no suspects except for the vague information left by the CCTV videos and the probably hazy recollection of events by those who may have witnessed the crime.

The incident, however, placed what was otherwise described as full security measures being employed by mall managements in and around Manila in ridicule.

Despite the tap down and the mandatory checking of bags in mall entrances, four people have died in separate mall shooting incidents last year in Quezon City and in Pampanga. But these were isolated cases, a couple of crimes of passion which nevertheless put to test the efficiency of the measures practiced by the security agenc(y/ies) hired by the management of SM, where both incidents happened.

In 2009 in the Ayala-owned Greenbelt 5, armed men also robbed in broad daylight a Rolex watch shop in Makati City. It was perpetrated by a well-organized crime group, whose supposed leader was killed in a shootout much, much later.

Early this year in February, the Ayala Town Center in Alabang also became a crime scene when a group of men shot it out with security guards delivering money to another foreign exchange dealer. The security guard/driver of the armored van died in the incident. A man believed part of the criminal group also died of bullet wound.

Police pointed to what they described as the “Ozamis Group” as responsible in the ATC heist. There are no statements yet whether it is also linked to the Galleria holdup.

These incidents point to a breakdown in law and order. When crimes like these used to be confined only in provincial cities in the past, recent events have proved criminal elements have been emboldened by their chance of success in any place in the metropolis, proof of which are the big heists in Quezon City, in Alabang, Muntinlupa and the last in Pasig, along the very busy Edsa.

The 2009 incident in Greenbelt 5, and the ATC and Galleria crimes also happened just as the country is about to embark in another election year, raising suspicions that these incidents could be the handiwork of some people in power to raise funds for candidates.

Crimes like these were not unusual in the past. And they make other crimes look petty.

There is no day when the media do not report of “small” crimes like bag snatching and holdup cases in various places of the metropolis, but of late, criminals seem to have been emboldened or inspired by the “big ones” like those of the Greenbelt, ATC and Galleria incidents.

And yet, the Philippine National Police claimed a decrease in the number of crimes a couple of months before all these exploded.

Maybe they are looking elsewhere.