Isabela bank loses P.1M to robbers

By Raymund Catindig

TUGUEGARAO CITY – Police are hot on the trail of a group of robbers who broke into a small rural bank in Luna, Isabela after smashing its concrete wall and opening its vault with acetylene torch and took over P100,000 in cash Wednesday night.

Senior Insp. Edgar Pattaui, Luna police chief, said the robbers also dismantled and carted away the closed-circuit television camera and other gadgets in the bank.

Police suspect that the robbers were the same ones arrested in 2011 while trying to rob a rural bank in San Manuel town by digging a tunnel through the bank’s vault.

However, the nine members of the robbery group were later released after their case of bri-gandage was dismissed by the Department of Justice due to defective information.