A liaison officer and two other employees of the Negros Occidental Teachers Federation were about to leave the parking lot of the Negros First CyberCentre in Bacolod City when they were allegedly held up Thursday morning, May 19.
They told the police that an unidentified man pointed a gun at them and declared a hold-up while they were inside the vehicle.
The fleeing gunman on board a motorcycle carted away the more than P600,000 that the victims had just withdrawn from a nearby bank.
Maj. Ramel Sarona, Police Station 1 commander, said footage of closed-circuit television showed that the vehicle of the victims and the motorcycle driven by the suspect were following each other when they entered and exited the premises.
It is possible that the robbery was an “inside job” or “hold-up me” incident, he said.
There was a security guard at the entrance of the parking area and the scene of the alleged hold-up incident, but they did not notice a commotion, contrary to the statement of the liaison officer, Sarona said.
The management of the security office of the CyberCentre also assured that there was no neglect of duty by its security personnel who were the ones who alerted the police regarding the incident.
A Police Station 1 report also said a thief also broke into the NOTF office in December.
The teachers’ federation has yet to issue a statement on the incident.*