Calabanga Rural Bank Loses P700,000 to Thieves

CALABANGA, CAMARINES (Oct 12) - THIEVES EQUIPPED with a bolt-cutter, a sledge hammer, and chisels , bore a hole into the roofing  and passed through the ceiling of a rural  bank in this town carting some P 705, 000 in cash, the local police in this town reported on Monday (October 11).

Calabanga  Police Chief Insp. Elmer V. Mora said the management of the Peñafrancia Rural Bank branch had lapses on their part, by not heeding the police's recommendations after the first attempt by thieves occurred on the evening of October 9.

Back then, the police urged the bank management to repair a damaged portion of the roofing forcibly torn-open by the thieves, and urgently post guards.

Mora also said no official request to secure the bank was made by the management until the establishment was finally robbed last October 10 with the thieves gaining entrance to the manager's office, destroying the cash bolt of the bank, and afterwards looting the huge amount.

According to Calabanga Mayor Evelyn Yu, the police had reported  that crimes in this town have decreased, with some eight cases out of ten having been solved and filed in court under the term of Mora.

Still, police intelligence sources at the PPO bared that Calabanga is among 12 towns in the 3rd and 4^th districts of the province, where an organized crime group is operating.

Since the end of September this year, a holdup gang armed with M-16 rifle, Cal. 45 pistols, and UZI-type machine pistol took P548,000 in cash sales from a comprada owned by couple Luis and Minerva Nacario at Barangay Del Rosario, Pili town.

Earlier, in Cabanbanan, Balatan, two employees of the Fund Line Finance Corp., while travelling on motorcycle were held-up by armed men who carted some P31,000 in cash, cell phones, and other valuables. Reportedly, the suspects were carrying similar calibre of firearms used in the Nacario robbery. (SONNY SALES)