A security camera footage recorded Tuesday鈥檚 robbery at Mabuhay Manor hotel, where the perpetrators didn鈥檛 bother to cover their faces. They were gone in five minutes after taking cash and valuables worth P4 million, police said. 鈥擯hoto courtesy of Pasay police
PHOTO BY MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
Four men pulled off an armed robbery at a Pasay City hotel on Tuesday morning, fleeing with about P4 million in cash and valuables taken from guests they chanced upon at the lobby.
Police said the pistol wielding robbers declared a holdup and first tried to locate the hotel鈥檚 safe upon entering Mabuhay Manor on F.B. Harrison Street at 3:19 a.m. on Jan. 2.
Footage from the hotel鈥檚 security camera showed how they first disarmed Jho-an Jabagat, the only security guard posted at the entrance. They took his .38-caliber revolver before dragging him to the lobby.
In a statement to the police, the hotel鈥檚 night auditor Rudy de Guzman said the gunmen 鈥� who appeared to be in their 20s and did not have anything covering their faces 鈥� found him at the cashier鈥檚 booth, dragged him out and ordered him to open the room where they thought the hotel鈥檚 safe was kept.
De Guzman refused and pointed them to two other rooms instead. When the robbers found the rooms empty, the auditor was punched in the face and his head was banged against the wall.
Unable to find the safe, the robbers turned to the guests who happened to be at the聽 lobby.
Held at gunpoint, Dominador Castro, a 57-year-old Filipino-American from California who was in the country for the holidays, was forced to hand over his Rolex watch, a gold necklace and a gold ring.
The robbers also took a Bulova watch, Versace eyeglasses, smartphones and cash from Castro鈥檚 three relatives, according to Senior Supt. Gene Licud, the Pasay assistant police chief for administration.
They also took P53,000 in cash from the hotel鈥檚 cashier, as well as the phones of some of the staff members on duty.
Spending less than five minutes at the hotel, the robbers were last seen escaping in a black Hyundai Starex van which waited for them on Ortigas Street.
Witnesses who saw the van heading toward Roxas Boulevard said its license plate had been covered with a piece of paper.
Licud said the hotel had about 50 other guests, who were undisturbed in their rooms at the time of the robbery.
Investigators are looking at a possible 鈥渋nside job,鈥� he said, as the robbers apparently knew that the Mabuhay Manor management was unable to deposit the hotel鈥檚 earnings in the bank because of the holidays.
Licud also noted how Jabagat, the disarmed security guard from Blue Flame Security Agency, seemed 鈥渓ax鈥� that morning. 鈥淗e wasn鈥檛 able to do anything when the robbers arrived. He was not that alert and thus unable to use his gun.鈥�
Asked if the guard would also be investigated or be considered a person of interest, the police official initially said yes but pointed out that Jabagat had denied involvement in the robbery.