Only civilian watchmen, not licensed security guards or Capitol security men, were on duty when burglars took relief goods kept in a storage room of the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) last June 18.
Loy Madrigal, Capitol security chief, said the watchmen were from the province’s demolition team.
Burglars took advantage of the gap in security.
On that same day, personnel of Black Pearl Security Agency were pulled out of their CICC posts and other Capitol-owned properties after Gov. Hilario Davide III cancelled the province’s temporary arrangement with the agency for serious lapses.
The burglars used the right time to strike.
“They timed it when the old guards were gone. Someone was really working inside for them. It was a well-planned operation. They saw our weakness and exploited it,” Madrigal told Cebu Daily News.
The watchmen were not formally trained or armed.
An inventory is still being made to determine the items lost from the storage site used by Gawad Kalinga, which is conducting its own investigation.
Antonio “Toby” Florendo, GK head in Cebu, said that mostly used clothing and bottled water were kept there.
Florendo clarified yesterday that it was not GK that said the some of the persons seen in the video footage of security cameras “look familiar”.
He said it was a guard who gave that information.
NO RECORD
The video showed several men coming in and out of the storage area, and leaving with bags, sacks and using a trolley to cart away the relief goods between 7 p.m. and midnight.
Madrigal said the civilian watchmen didn’t record the plate number of the vehicles entering the facility or ask drivers to present an identification card.
They were only able to record the time the vehicles entered and exited the facility, he said.
Madrigal said he will call the watchmen on duty during the burglary and the former Black Pearl guards and Capitol Civil Security Unit (CSU) staff and show them the video footage of the robbery in a meeting tomorrow.
“The old guards may recognize the people in the footage because they were assigned in the post the longest,” he said.
Madrigal said the culprits, took advantage of the gap in security and knew the internal operations.
OPERATION
As of yesterday, provincial government officials and Gawad Kalinga officials had yet to conduct an inventory of the stolen items.
GK’s Florendo said they will release a second official statement about the incident today after a meeting with other GK heads held yesterday afternoon.
In their first statement, GK reported the “unauthorized withdrawal of goods” from their storage area in CICC and that a committee was formed to work closely with the Cebu provincial government to take proper action.
If persons represent themselves as GK members, this can be verified by calling the Gawad Kalinga Provincial Office at (032) 266-1288.
GK, with 16 coordination teams across the country, steered a massive relief and rehabilitation operation in north Cebu and neigbhoring provinces in the wake of supertyphoon “Yolanda”. Madrigal said he would meet with GK heads to discuss how to go about the investigation tomorrow.
After the burglary, two two more security personnel were assigned to secure the interior of CICC, said Madrigal.
Vehicles going in and out will also be inspected and will be asked to present an identification card.
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Burglars get relief goods in CICC: An inside job?
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