This is Greenbelt Mall
Armed robbers stormed Greenbelt Five at high noon in Manila today. A Rolex Store was the target. The mall locked down as police are conducting their investigation. As I type this, the Inquirer reported one suspect is dead, shot by a bodyguard of Taguig Mayor Freddie Tinga. I’m pretty sure by the time you read this, more detail would have come out.
Makati on a Sunday is packed with people having lunch. Already fear is being sowed. Can you blame people? It is the heart of the business district and the place where the well off and the young gather to enjoy their time off.
Conspiracy theories will start to propagate.
Like clockwork, our malls tomorrow will be like fortresses. Security guards will be checking the underbelly of your car and, you will be asked to pop open your trunk. As if people will ever find bombs in there. If there is one thing we can learn from the stories of 9/11 and of Mumbai and other terror attack, locking down never really works out for the better. As if the closing the barn door will keep the animals at bay, now that they’re all out.
This only instills fear.
Passive surveillance, and intelligence gathering and basically better security forces that protect us in a nonintrusive manner is the way to go. In my most humble opinion, it is important to remember these words of Benjamin Franklin, “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
What else must we do?
“We must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. We will face our fear.”*
At the end of the day, does it really matter whether the intent was pure robbery, or a way to instill fear in society? Does it matter whether the intent was to loot to fund a political campaign? The fact remain that the next government still must focus on Institutional Reform. That the eye on the ball must be to make our police more trustworthy, less corrupt, and our justice system impeccable. That’s the only way to fight crime, graft and corruption. We fight it by having courage. We fight it by having a justice system everyone can agree is fair and reliable. We fight it with a police force we can depend on. That’s what we citizens must demand of our future leaders. That’s our eye on the ball. That’s how we face our fear.
*with my apologies to Frank Herbert.
*image is by Mike Gonzalez and he licensed it under creative commons-share-alike 3.0.
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This comes with the Glorietta bombing not too far back in time (although Glorietta 1 and 2 have been knocked down for rebuilding). Makati area seems a favorite for these high-profile crimes. Targeting the higher classes? Hmmm.
i suppose they get attention by targeting makati.
Corporate Security Responsibility is a governance concept but maybe new to the developing world like Philippines. It emphasizes contribution such as improving security to the community to make a positive impact on consumers/customers quality of life. Fearful shoppers has a direct impact on business profit.
The role of small, medium and large corporations for conflict prevention and security peace-building is a good step by contributing to the diffusion of ” GOOD GOVERNANCE” standards and the establishment of safe institutions. In fearful zones, a fully developed legal framework and the state capacity to enforce it is often absent and private corporations are increasingly drawn into playing public roles to compensate for governance gaps and governance failures.
My question will be under what circumstances and in how, if at all, corporations can be expected to undertake security and regulatory governance functions in the public interest? How do our candidates resolve security issue knowing that this country is of tight budget to secure our country? How does a candidate motivate and lead private corporations without conflict of interest to participate actively in GOOD governance making?
What is the role of mayor in a particular community’s security? Would he hire more policemen and to whose expense? How can he motivate private entities to work in cooperation with one another to secure his community?
what rule of law applies to this blog?
anyway, we can all be beavis and butthead…
Stupid heist. Greenbelt may seemingly lack protection but that’s just how the mall owners want it. It’s crawling with security agents. Isang relo lang million na eh pababayaan ba yun?
Please lang, eh ano naman kung may gusting magnakaw sa G5. Daming magnanakaw. Logical lang na may mag attempt sa pinaka mamahaling establishment.
Dapat bawal magpasok ng baril sa loob ng shopping mall. Even that bodyguard should not be allowed to carry guns into a shopping mall.
Dapat bawal din gumamit ng baril ang mga magnanakaw, pati narin mga holduper, tsaka mga NPA at Abu Sayaf.
If good people will not carry guns, only bad guys will.
At least that bodyguard was good for something other than beating up a golfer. >:)
I wonder if those escaped robbers would turn up at some pay parking lot, suddenly make sitsit to a passer-by and show the Rolex they nabbed. Wanna buy watch Joe?
One of the theories i’ve heard is this. rolex watches, can’t exactly be sold like hot potatoes in every street corner. so why so bold a strike? some people think the motive is less about what was stolen but an attempt at striking fear. Then again some people are putting forth the idea that this is fund raising for next year’s election.
Ang palagay ko, may order na para sa mga espesyal na relo. The M16-robbers were just filling orders.
Sa Pilipinas ang sabi nga ng matatanda, napakamura ng buhay ng tao.
Nyahaha, the wanna-buy-watch thing was humor. Yep, it strikes fear into people… of not just the criminals but even the police, who will even be told of as backers. Of the elite because, why did they put up a high-class mall in the first place, or they might even be backers. Of politicians because they rob banks for election funds. And fear of the government because they’ll supposedly use this as a martial law reason… The purpose is too obvious to me. It’s terrorism aside from just crime. We’ll all be afraid of each other when this is over… that’s what the robbery planners hope, I guess.
Criminals are everywhere. Holdupers, pickpockets, scammers, terrorists, prostitutes, etc…all kinds of shady characters are everywhere in our society. They are even in the Philippine Congress. Some maybe in the Philippine Senate. They even reached Malacanang Palace. Ever heard of those murder investigations?
If you are afraid. You dont live a normal life. It is the soul that
is afraid of dying that will never learn to live. We cannot change this situation. We have to learn to live and cope with it. If tragedy
strikes you. It will be just a misfortune for you…
Also, this country must strengthen our Whistle Blowing Laws. Good practices for the protection of witnesses in criminal proceedings involving organized crimes must be fully implemented. Too bad, big crimes start at the very top….
How can our laws be implemented if the country is run by the lack of moral and social responsibility. Yes, the tragedy of the many filipino people is a consequence not an accident or misfortune. The world can be a safer place to live….
Just think about it for a while. There are a committed bunch of men with access to high powered firearms who are ready to die for the cause of gaining material wealth by any means possible.
They obviously have no fear of dying or of getting caught.
There have been many bank robberies in broad daylight in many other crowded areas of Metro Manila.
This time the area of the elite was hit and suddenly the talk is about fear?
Like natural calamities that affect all classes sooner or later major crimes will migrate to the areas of the rich also. It is an equal opportunity event.
It is not unusual for men in official looking uniforms carrying high powered firearms to have easy access to all areas in the city.
It is obvious that the Ayala security men did not challenge the men. It might be a good idea to construct bunkers with machine gun nests to prevent future incursions.
What Is Law?
What, then, is law? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense.
Each of us has a natural right — from God — to defend his person, his liberty, and his property. These are the three basic requirements of life, and the preservation of any one of them is completely dependent upon the preservation of the other two. For what are our faculties but the extension of our individuality? And what is property but an extension of our faculties? If every person has the right to defend even by force — his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right — its reason for existing, its lawfulness — is based on individual right. And the common force that protects this collective right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other mission than that for which it acts as a substitute. Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force — for the same reason — cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups.
Such a perversion of force would be, in both cases, contrary to our premise. Force has been given to us to defend our own individual rights. Who will dare to say that force has been given to us to destroy the equal rights of our brothers? Since no individual acting separately can lawfully use force to destroy the rights of others, does it not logically follow that the same principle also applies to the common force that is nothing more than the organized combination of the individual forces?
If this is true, then nothing can be more evident than this: The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense. It is the substitution of a common force for individual forces. And this common force is to do only what the individual forces have a natural and lawful right to do: to protect persons, liberties, and properties; to maintain the right of each, and to cause justice to reign over us all.
From an outsider’s viewpoint, the Philippines is an armed camp, period. Who does NOT own a gun?
Security will exist when there is a better-developed concept of right and wrong, and those aligned with right put the arm of discipline, and jail time, on kids and adults who don’t really give a whit about others.
Who, really, does not bend to the enticement of cheating and getting personal advantage, over, say, being considerate and generous? Few.
The road ahead is long and dangerous, seems to me.
Joe
Well, the GOP and the right to bear arms is definitely ought to be a home in the Philippines!
The answer really is, justice. guarantee justice and then we can demilitarize the country.
It is a long road— but more importantly, is there political will?
Political will? Wala niyan sa Pilipinas. Ningas-kugon mentality at political will are mutually exclusive.
I agree with you that this country should have the right to keep and bear arms. It is our god-given right (not by the constitution though) to be able to keep the tools that will allow us to defend ourselves, and our loved ones.
Joe,
An armed society is a polite society. The reason these criminals are so brazen is because they know there will be very little resistance. They did surveillance, found out that security is lax and there would very likely be no or very little resistance from the guards and planned accordingly. They certainly did not count on encountering 2 armed men who incidentally were plainclothes police. Had they realized that they have a very small chance of getting their heist pulled off, they would have picked an easier target.
A neighbor of mine who wants to rule our streets decided one day that he would fire shots from his pistol in front of our house because we are the only household not intimidated by him. He was so brazen until he realized that we owned several rifles and shotguns inside our home. Up to this day, he is a very behaved resident of our neighborhood.
darwin25,
Yes, I understand the deterrent point of view. A slight hitch is that we aliens are not allowed to own weapons, so I hope you can appreciate the perception I have that a lot of weapons are pointed my way. The welcome is less than pleasant as I stand here armed with my prayer book. And on the scale of civility, guns put us back alongside the chimpanzees who learned to swing bones at one another.
Joe
We’ve been swinging bones at each other ever since we learned that bones can be used as a weapon. Guns had nothing to do with that. Before the advent fo ranged weapons, the big and strong always preyed on the weak and small. Guns as ranged weapons enabled the weak and small to defend themselves from the big and strong. They are not called equalizers for nothing. They make the alpha males among us chimpanzees to think twice, long and hard before picking up on the smaller ones.
On another note, you will find that “responsible” and law-abiding gun owners, and I quote the word responsible here, are one of the most caring and law-abiding citizens you will find anywhere in the world. Remember the judge who saved people in his water-ski during Ondoy? His picture published in the newspapers showing him wearing his gun rigs.
Joe,
It is really sad that registered foreigners who are long-time resident and/or immigrants are not able to own guns in our country. I believe in the US, there are provisions where an immigrant may be allowed to own firearms. There should be reciprocity for US citizens who are staying in the Philippines.
“some people think the motive is less about what was stolen but an attempt at striking fear.”-cocoy
A very sensible observation. Imagine 11 or more robbers in bomb squad uniforms, with long high-powered firearms including grenade launchers. With that firepower, such a group can easily rob a bank located in a not-so-crowded or enclosed environment then get away with cash instead of watches.
Is it just me, or does somebody else see a pattern here? Here’s a gang of 11 robbing Greenbelt, I think it was 15 in the Waltermart not too long ago?
Large, well-armed gangs roaming the city are kind of disturbing. It really is a matter that should be investigated thoroughly and properly (and not left to the media, or the Senate, to make a fuss over and then let drop in a few days).
baka pakana ng US Embassy at CIA para matakot ang metro-Manila at humiling ng USA support. Eh hindi ba may US marines na sa metro-Manila. Dagdagan pa!
Maaring hindi CIA — baka si First Gentleman para matakot ang metro-Manila at humiling ng “..strong leader”. Is there any other “..strong leader” around kung hindi si GMA?\
Hindi puwede ito. LABAN! GMA, talsik diyan! Where is Asiong Salonga when you need a hero?
What Is Law?
What, then, is law? It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense.
Each of us has a natural right — from God — to defend his person, his liberty, and his property. These are the three basic requirements of life, and the preservation of any one of them is completely dependent upon the preservation of the other two. For what are our faculties but the extension of our individuality? And what is property but an extension of our faculties? If every person has the right to defend even by force — his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly. Thus the principle of collective right — its reason for existing, its lawfulness — is based on individual right. And the common force that protects this collective right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other mission than that for which it acts as a substitute. Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force — for the same reason — cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups.
Such a perversion of force would be, in both cases, contrary to our premise. Force has been given to us to defend our own individual rights. Who will dare to say that force has been given to us to destroy the equal rights of our brothers? Since no individual acting separately can lawfully use force to destroy the rights of others, does it not logically follow that the same principle also applies to the common force that is nothing more than the organized combination of the individual forces?
If this is true, then nothing can be more evident than this: The law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense. It is the substitution of a common force for individual forces. And this common force is to do only what the individual forces have a natural and lawful right to do: to protect persons, liberties, and properties; to maintain the right of each, and to cause justice to reign over us all.
Or, we can also play. “Spy vs. Spy”
Who are these character(s) in Black and White suits?
My sibs and I were there. Didn’t hear anything, we were in one of the restaurants outside, waiting for my parents and some friends to arrive. We told them to stay away and then rejoined after a short while.
This seems to be what the whole problem is all about: when the security personnel (of Greenbelt) would allow “armed group” passing off as members of the PNP and the Bomb Squad of that agency to enter the mall – without them being asked for the following documents:
1. Mission Order
2. Agency Identification Cards
3. Memorandum Receipts (for the firearms and explosives)
4. Appropriate designation papers from the Team Leader
then, chances are, such armed robbery could be the handiwork of any criminal gang, just any.
The security personnel, very clearly, have been remissed of their responsibilities in having allowed, without being properly challenged, the suspects or robbers that bolted the Rolex Watch Store.
In the military, sentinels do ask for password to challenge any possible intruder. If that intruder cannot provide the password, then that gives the sentinel every right to shoot.
There is therefore a great need reorienting security protocols at Greenbelt, it should be “militarized” a little bit since recruitment in security agencies seems far relaxed and shabby.
Imagine if you were in the KLCC near Dr Mahathir’s twin towers and this kind of crime happened? This would shoot down Malaysia’s tourist come-ons since the KLCC mall area is the model for Ayala’s Greenbelt. It just shows everyone how bad the security situation is for the Pinoy elite and expats who frequent Ayala’s malls. In Malaysia and elsewhere, shopping tourism gimmicks cater to the elite.
I say this since robberies and hold ups are one of the EVERYDAY risks the B,C and D mall goers face. This kind of attack isn’t new. A similar one happened in the mid 90s at Henry Sy’s MegaMall basement. MegaMall caters to a more middle class demographic than Greenbelt.
In fact the lower classes seem inured to the Greenbelt Sunday mayhem since hardly anyone among them goes to Greenbelt. But this may be due to the fact that they do face these risks every day that they are used to it.
This is where the fear concept as brought forward should be placed in its proper context.
Similarly I can’t still get rid of the feeling of danger whenever I step into a McDonald’s in the United States! Again the crazed gunman context in America comes into my mind.
Looks to me like some of the elite themselves are backing these kinds of robberies. Seems logical to connect to a broad daylight raid in a high-class mall.
What happened to Binay and Makati police? Hindi ba ang Makati Police Station ay malapit lang doon sa Yakal near Ayala Avenue Extension? How long before the police arrived, twenty minutes?
Blackshama,
If you get fear when you enter McDonalds in the US, you need to see a shrink or a mathematician who can explain the odds of an untoward incident. The place you should never go is out on the roads. Man, 40,000 a year get splattered against buildings, trucks, mountains, assorted concrete abutments, and other cars. US deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are insignificant by comparison. Road deaths aren’t news, so they don’t get headlined.
So be afraid! Be very afraid!
As for looney gunmen in the US, they are generally that, lone crazies. The mall attacks here are organized by SANE people. Same with the assorted kidnappings. And death squad hits. Government approved on occasion, if you believe rumor . . . It is a culture of fear for many . . .
Joe
Hmmm, thats weird. For some reason I feel safer in the US. Maybe because I can shoot back.
For one thing, if you shoot back and people know you shot a criminal, you’re not likely to be jailed. Here, you shoot a criminal, and you’re still going to be jailed.
We act and live like animals. Holduppers do holdups in the middle
of the day. With people all around the mall. Our country is decending
into wild wild west. The Makati Police and the Paradise of
Mayor Binay were nowhere in sight. They were all sleeping and lethargic of their claimed successes of the Makati City. Natural calamities, brazen criminals, politicians acting like Pirates of the
Caribean, useless Police and leaders, etc…how much more can
we take?
Where did these people get their high powered arms and bomb squad
uniforms? Somebody with good military knowledge and supplies are
supplying them.
from MV Karagatan?
Is this the same Alvin Flores Gang that was involved in that deadly shootout in Paranaque last year? You mean the PNP has not caught them or figured out yet how to stop them?
No wonder PNP Director General Jesus Verzosa is trying to shift the attention onto the Ayala security guards. Binay’s Makati Police and the PNP were very slow in responding to the Greenbelt Rolex robbery. Now General Verzosa “…said he would cancel the license of Aglipay’s security firm if it was found to have violated police protocols issued to private security agencies.”
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20091021-231400/Ex-PNP-chief-defends-mall-guards-No-civilian-hurt
Makati City, being the business capital of RP, serves as ideal staging ground for not just any major political activism but for any major criminal one, for that matter. The Rolex robbery heist is a good example of the latter.
Even this very government cannot ‘spring out’ of his crown, the City Mayor of this place simply because the people love their “king”. Come to think of it, Makati City is a “little Republic” in its own right.
This so-called Rolex robbery could be the handiwork of the military out to sow ‘intrigue’ in the collective equilibrium that has pervaded the city’s notion of governance.
Makati City must not be intimidated by these tricks in the book from the Palace’s ‘demolition department’. In the end, the supposed-to-be criminal act is a political statement issued by BIG BAD GOVERNMENT. What do you think?
It escapes comprehension how in the world two bodyguards of a certain mayor mall hopping at Greenbelt where the Rolex robbery heist happened were able to engage the suspects or robbers in a shooting match amidst any number of shoppers.
This, reports have it, accounted for the death of one of the so-called criminal gang and the plainclothes man who turns out to be a member of the PNP and detailed with the office of a city mayor got praise and commendation for the act.
But did he not shoot someone wearing the official insignia of a member of the legitimate Bomb Squad? That for all intent and purpose, such personage should be perceived as bonafide member of the PNP? How could he have determined that the fatal suspect was an impostor, a pseudo-police, a fake when he himself played undercover agent?
I find this suspicious – which of two armed individuals is fake – one in PNP uniform, or one in plainclothes? In other words, it stands to reason that the two bodyguards of the city mayor should be investigated for having involved themselves in a shootout in a crowd. I find something fishing out of this scheme and scene.
Speaking of Greenbelt and other malls, the Philippine Supreme Court made a ruling. Shopping malls can collect parking fees. I don’t mind if a Nueva Ecija high school student thinks that parking is a right. But one would think Office of the Solicitor General would know better, yet it sued on presumption that “… mall owners are obligated to provide free parking space, which would protect “life, health, property and public welfare” and alleviate traffic jams”.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20091001-227807/Supreme-Court-affirms-pay-parking-in-malls
We cannot distinguish now between police and Robbers. Robbers pretending to be Police or Military. Police or Military pretending
to be Robbers. Dont be an statistic. Stay home. Nobody is safe anymore.
The news last week is that home invasions i.e, invading a household while the residents are inside their homes, are on the rise.
Hyden,
Let me react.
Indeed, given this Rolex raid scenario, here we found alleged “robbers” impostor(ing) as legitimate members of the PNP’s SWAT or Bomb Squad but their own act betrays that fact as in the case of this broad-day light siege.
On the other side of the fence, here we see plainclothes men performing VIP security duty to a city mayor playing out role as SWAT members, engaged themselves in a shooting war with the alleged ‘robbers’ when there is no clear and present danger to their very lives nor to that of their VIP.
Who is who and which is which, one must ask.
The city mayor’s bodyguards who figured in the shooting, causing death to one of the robbers, could have shot upon the customers in the Rolex Store, any innocent bystander, the security guard itself unless it be proved that by a trained hand, the bodyguard did really aim to any particular robber.
But the words spoken were these: “bakbakan na natin” which means there can be no specific target being eyed. What if the stray bullets miss other individuals?
Then the PNP is quick to reward the police involved. This is awesome.
incidentally, the congress is railroading a bill that when passed into law would automatically severely restrict the kinds of guns that a civilian can own.
http://conservativepinoy.blogspot.com/2009/08/labanan-ang-hb-6658_28.html
all these while criminals and other lawless elements continue to enjoy access
to high-powered military style weapons.
http://conservativepinoy.blogspot.com/2009/08/conservative-pinoy-and-his-guns.html
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