Florence Convenience Store on Gorordo Ave. which is just about 50 meters away from the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) headquarters is the most recent victim of the string of robberies in Cebu City. Two armed men fled on board a motorcycle with the store’s P5,000 earnings yesterday dawn.
(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
Having the police as your next-door neighbor is no guarantee that you’ll be safe from crime.
A 24-hour convenience store in Cebu City learned this lesson the hard way after they became the latest addition to the city’s robbery crime statistic shortly before dawn yesterday.
Two men wearing full-faced helmets and armed with guns barged into Florence Convenience Store at the corner of Gorordo Ave. and Ayala access road at 3:30 a.m. and fled with the store’s P5,000 earnings.
The store is approximately 50 meters away from the headquarters of the Cebu City Police Office in Camp Sotero Cabahug, also in Gorordo Ave.
Investigators from the Theft and Robbery Section are hoping to identify the perpetrators through the store’s closed-circuit television camera.
The incident was the fourth armed robbery to hit Cebu City’s stores in two weeks.
The city police earlier linked a dismissed policeman to the string of robberies, saying he was identified through security footage taken from the establishments victimized by robbers. Last week, Senior Supt. Noli Romana, the city’s chief of police, virtually exonerated ex-policeman Eugene Salingay after investigators found out that he had been languishing in jail in Oroquieta City when the robbery incidents happened.
Senior Supt. Conrado Capa, deputy regional director for operations of the Police Regional Office 7, however said the robbery cases are “not a cause for alarm” and described the incidents as “concerns”.
Capa however, convened an emergency meeting with CCPO officials yesterday.
Romana said they have already identified the perpetrators particularly those who robbed the Western Union outlet in barangay Guadalupe as “local boys”.
“We have leads. We have good leads,” said Romana.
Romana added they are considering the installation of cheap and practical alarm systems in Cebu City establishments to easily alert the police in case of robbery.
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