By NITZ ARANCON
and JOEY NACALABAN
Correspondents .
COUNCILOR Romeo Calizo yesterday threatened to have all the branches of the commercial courier LBC Express Inc. closed down in the city even as the city council’s police and public safety committee starts looking into the series of robbery cases involving the firm here.
The warning came even as the spokesman of the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo), Supt. Mardy Hortillosa, revealed that investigators have started suspecting that Sunday’s robbery at an LBC branch at Velez-Tirso Neri streets was an “inside job.”
Calizo, who is the chairman of the council’s police committee, noted that the LBC branches in the city have remained unguarded despite the string of robbery cases.
He said the committee would start an investigation into the LBC heists today, and unless the courier firm’s executives cooperate, he would ask Mayor Oscar Moreno to close down all its branches in the city.
Calizo said the more he would recommend that the LBC branches in the city be closed down if the courier company fails to follow public safety rules and contract the services of security guards.
He said the investigation would be jointly conducted with the city council’s committee on trade and commerce chaired by Councilor George Goking at 10 am today. LBC executives and local police officials have been summoned.
Today’s investigation comes after the robbery of an LBC branch in the Divisoria area at around 10:30 am on Sunday. It lost some P110 thousand to the robbers.
Calizo said the LBC branch had no guard, and he, too, suspected that it was an “inside job.”
“Atong susihon kay basin na-ay mga engkangto diha sa sulod,” he said.
Calizo added: “Nahibaw-an ko nga dili na sila gabaton og security guard. LBC should not only think of their business interests but also the interest of their customers.”
He said he was informed that all LBC outlets here have no guards except those located in the malls.
Calizo said the absence of guards at LBC branches despite the numerous robbery cases means its customers are always exposed to risks, making it a public safety matter.
He also noted: “Na-a pay ilang CCTV camera nga dili nila gamiton ug tarong.”
Supt. Hortillosa said the police would dig deeper as he said it was possible that it was an “inside job.”
Hortillosa said LBC was already advised to contract the services of guards but to no avail.
Chief Insp. Julius Macariola, Divisoria police chief, said investigators have asked the company to provide them with copies of the CCTV recordings.
Macariola said the LBC management promised to cooperate.
He confirmed that the establishment had no guard at the time it was robbed by two armed men.
“Policy man kuno nila sa ilang top management sa Manila nga dili sila magkuha og security guard,” Macariola said.
Police said only one robber barged inside the establishment while another served as a lookout.
Macariola said no witness could say exactly how the robbers fled or if they used a getaway vehicle.
Police said it was still trying to identify suspects but Macariola added that it was possible that the robbers were the same people behind previous LBC heists here.
Police noted that an LBC branch in Barangay Carmen was robbed three weeks ago.
Christa May Escobido, an LBC teller, told investigators the robber who barged into the establishment wore a peach shirt with the markings “Make poverty history.”
She claimed the robber threatened and made her open the vault while another man waited outside.
The suspects, she said, looked like the same men who robbed the LBC branch in Carmen.
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