PHILIPPINE NEWS SERVICE — Investigators have ruled out the involvement of policemen in the weekend robbery of a Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. branch in Cabuyao, Laguna that left 10 people dead.
At least five names appeared to have been logged in by slain security guard Baltazar Aguilando, identifying them as policemen.
But Task Force RCBC said the five, who were signed in before the massacre did not belong to the service.
A member of the task force, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a check with the rooster of Camp Crame headquarters showed that there were no such officers as P/Insp. Jun Alvares, PO1s Allan Paule, Boy Mina, Gerly Ona, and Albert Malaya.
The five were noted in the logbook recovered at the crime scene; also recorded was an M-16 rifle and a loaded magazine surrendered to the guard.
The source said Aguilando could be the one who wrote the names.
“And if he did, he did it under duress and designed to mislead investigators,” he added, without giving credence to the gangland-style of execution described in earlier accounts.
Aguilando’s body was found in the power house and not inside the bank, where other victims were at their respective posts, indicating that they were lined up before being shot.
Isagani Pastor, the bank’s area vice president and resident of Mercedez Village in San Pedro, Laguna, was found near the closed front door but died Sunday, or two days after the incident.
Reports said the five suspects arrived on a white Toyota Revo without a plate number.
Police have recovered the getaway vehicle, a Mitsubishi Adventure van, abandoned at the Flying V gasoline station in Turbina, Calamba City, or about four kilometers away.
Investigators said bank security guards Joel de la Cruz and Regidor Sampoan—reportedly Aguilando’s reliever—passed the polygraph test and were found negative for powder burns.