N. Vizcaya bank loses P.7 million to robbers

By Joan Capuna

VILLAVERDE, Nueva Vizcaya – Police are still trying to identify robbers who broke inside a rural bank in this interior town evening of May 2 carting away P700,000 in cash and undetermined amount of other valuables.

Senior Insp. Noel Libunao, town police chief, said the armed robbers entered the Rural Bank of Villaverde, along the town’s Bintawan Road in Barangay Bintawan Norte, through the back entrance, using an acetylene blow torch after overpowering the bank’s security guard.

“The robbers entered the bank at around 7 p.m. with acetylene torch and armed with machine pistols,” he said. “They ran away with some P700,000 cash and the .38 caliber pistol of the security guard.”

A partly mountainous farming town, Villaverde, about 20 km from this capital, is located in the province’s northwestern section and borders on the northwest and north, respectively, by mountainous Ambaguio town and Ifugao province.

Senior Supt. Pedro Danguilan, provincial police director, said charges are now being readied against the suspects, three of whom had already been identified by authorities.

But he withheld the suspects’ names pending their being formally charged before the provincial prosecutor’s office this week.

The robbery was the biggest since the ransacking of the Cordillera Bank here and the Centro Mall in commercial Solano town where at least P2 million were taken from the said establishments.