P1.7M carted in Pototan highway robbery

By Jennifer P. Rendon

Delivery service company J&T Express Philippines lost P1.7 million in an alleged robbery at Pototan, Iloilo.

Police have yet to identify the three suspects that staged the broad daylight heist that happened not far from J&T Express branch in Barangay Rumbang, Pototan.

According to reports, Mila Mhar Gente, 23, a resident of Barangay Manaulan, Badiangan, Iloilo and finance and admin officer of J&T Express-Pototan, was about to deposit the stolen cash at the PNB branch in Guanco St., Pototan, when the incident happened.

Egardo Abido, 29, of Lopez Jaena St., Pototan and employed as a sorter of J&T Express, drove Gente in going to the bank.

Police are checking on information that Abido temporarily drove for the company in lieu of the full-time company driver.

As they were navigating a crossroad along Sterling Homes Subdivision at Rumbang village, three men on board a black Bajaj motorcycle waylaid them.

One of the suspects allegedly snatched Gente’s bag that contained the P1.7 million cash.

Gente fell from the running motorcycle. One of the assailants poked a handgun at her and grabbed the bag.

Aside from the cash, the bag also contained a mobile phone, ATM cards, and other pertinent documents.

Gente said the third suspect, who was also armed with a handgun, served as lookout.

The suspects immediately boarded their motorcycle and fled towards the area of Barotac Nuevo town.

Master Sergeant Mark Parreño, Pototan police investigator, said they would look at footages of CCTV cameras in the area and on the suspects’ escape route to help in their probe.

All things being considered, he said they are not also discounting the possibility of an inside job.

As of Thursday afternoon, Major Ciriaco Esquilarga, Pototan police chief, said they are conducting, at the same time, follow up investigation against persons of interest in the area of Badiangan town.

He did not elaborate further.

These persons, he added, could be a part of a criminal gang or had previous records of misdemeanor.

 

DIALOGUE 

Meanwhile, unit commanders and chiefs of police under the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) will start conducting dialogues with financial institutions in the province.

Thursday’s incident came 19 days after two robbers also swept clean a branch of Western Union money transfer service of around P1.5 million cash during a broad daylight robbery at Calinog, Iloilo.

Immediately after the Pototan robbery incident, Colonel Gilbert Gorero, Iloilo police chief, told subordinate commanders to conduct inventory and to check security alarm systems of financial institutions.

They were also tasked to conduct dialogues with financial firms and discuss the modus of the suspect/s and possible coordination when transacting big amount of money.

“If they want to deposit, they could ask our police personnel to escort them from their office going to the bank. I don’t think that would take some time,” Gorero said.

The Iloilo top cop said that pre-empting robbery incidents should be a shared responsibility among the company, the police, and even the community.

“Although the Calinog case is for filing already, we need to intensify our security measures in cooperation with private companies,” he said.

On top of the dialogue, Gorero also directed the chiefs of police to strengthen their security measures to prevent such incident by mobilizing the IPPO’s advocacy group, including the barangay intelligence network.

Gorero said they only monitored one active robbery group in the province.

But police are not discounting the possibility of resurgence of individuals previously involved in robbery and theft cases.