RCBC after six months report (feature)

Miami
November 13, 2008
RCBC after six months report

Six months after the tragedy, relatives of the victims of the RCBC (Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation) massacre in Cabuyao, Laguna are still seeking justice on the tragic death of their love ones.

The tragedy happened last May 16, 2008 between 8:30 to 9:00 am or upon the arrival of the employees. Those who were died on the spot were identified as branch manager Roberto Castro, janitor Juan Leyva, tellers Benjamin Nicdao and Olga Gonzalez, operations assistant Noel Miranda, new accounts officer Teresa Umayam, cashier service head Bernardo Lapaan Jr., security guard Baltazar Aguilando, and a depositor’s representative, Ferdinand Antonio.

The relations manager of the bank, Isagani Pastor, died two days after the incident. All of them sustained gun shout wounds on their head.

Still hurting, some of the relatives do not want to talk about the tragedy. They opted to keep quiet. The auntie of Ma. Teresa Umayam, one of the victims said, looking back at the tragedy makes them more difficult to move on. Umayam was the new accounts officer of RCBC Cabuyao.

“It is still painful for us. We do not want people to keep on asking us what happened. The more they asked us the more it is becoming painful for us,” says of the auntie whom do not want to be name.

The wife of Ferdinand Antonio, Marie Ella do not want to talk about the issue as well. They have two siblings, a girl and boy, ages 8 and 6 respectively.

But Antonio’s cousin, Jane, told the Manila Shimbun that the family did not recover soon because of the incident. She said, although Marie Ella (wife of Antonio) is also working, her income is not sufficient for the needs of their family.

Jane is living now with the Antonio’s taking good care of the children, “No one will take good care of them, instead of hiring a maid, it will be better if a relative like me will look at them because they also do not need to pay me.”

Jane also said that as far as she knew, the management of the RCBC provides money for the schooling of the two children, but on how long would that be and how much the RCBC is giving for the kids, she has no idea. “What I know the RCBC still provides money for the kids,” she said.

Antonio was not an employee of the RCBC, he only went there to send documents to RCBC Cabuyao as instructed by his superiors from Ivoclar Vivante Inc where he was really working. Based on the sworn statement of Shiela Ongotan, they arrived at the bank at around 8:10 am, while Antonio was about to enter the bank a man wearing black jacket opened the door for him, put his arm on the shoulder of Antonio as they both entered the bank.

Antonio failed to go out after. Ongotan has no idea that there is a tragedy happening inside the bank because she did not hear anything. Ongotan only hitched a ride with Antonio because the latter was supposed to go to Sto. Tomas Batangas as part of his itinerary for the day, and Otongan has to go there as well.

For Gloria Leyva, wife of Juan Leyva, the janitor cum messenger of the RCBC in Cabuyao is shouting for justice on the untimely death of her husband. “He is the only person working and providing all our needs. It is very painful for us, but we seek justice.” They have five children, 3 girls and two boys.

Mrs. Leyva also said that with the death of her husband, she did not know where to start. “I do not really work, I only stay at home to take care of the kids because that was Juan wants from me when he was alive, and when he died, I really do not know what our future would be.”

She learned the death of her husband through their neighbours who asked her if Juan is indeed working in RCBC. He neighbours informed her that there is a robbery happened their.

At first, she did not believed that her husband was among the dead inside RCBC because every Friday morning between 9:00 am to 12:00 noon Juan is at the RCBC main office in Ayala Avenue, Makati City to deliver some documents.

“I was confident that he was no longer at the bank when the incident happened,” Mrs Leyva said. Because of the continuing reports on television about the incident, her 17 year old son together with his uncle went to the bank to confirm if Juan is also one of the victims. The two arrived at the bank at around 12:00 noon in time for the Scene of the Crime Operations (SOCO) to remove the bodies inside. There they saw the body of Juan and infirmed Mrs. Leyva about it.

“I hope the suspects only get the money they want, not to the point of killing our (victims) love ones,” Leyva added.

Leyva confirms what Jane earlier told Manila Shimbun that the RCBC provides help for the victims of the massacre. Leyva said she do not know if they have the same scheme or one is different from another. Leyva’s family is receiving P20,000 allowance every month and that will last for three years. What she did, she opened a time deposit account in order to save the money and to gain interest. “I am doing this for the sake of my children.” 4 of their children are already in high school while the youngest is already in Grade 6.

As earlier stated, the incident is already reached its sixth month the case is already filed at Binan Regional Trial Court branch 24 but no progress yet.

According to Supt. Roman Cardiño, deputy regional director of Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Police Regional Office 4 (CALABARZON) admits that the case is not easy to solve.

“We do not have witnesses at first because all of the employees were killed,” Cardiño said adding that their hope before was Isagani Pastor, but died two days after staying at the hospital.




But the police were able to identify the suspects through the witnesses who were at the vicinity when the incident happened.

Those who were arrested were Joel dela Cruz, the security guard of the RCBC, Ricardo Gomolon, and Jesus Narvaez. They are now being detained at Binan Provincial Jail. They are facing robbery and multiple murder charges. The case was filed last May 30, 2008.

Then on June 11 an amendment to the original complaint includes Crisanto Alvarez as he voluntarily confessed his participation as lookout in the said incident. He also mentioned the name of Jake Javier, Jun Alvarez, Eugenio Hilario and Montano Tolentino be added in the list of the suspects in this case. Tolentino was killed in an encounter last May 29, 2008 on his residence at barangay Puting Lupa, Calamba City Laguna.

Alvarez also includes the name of Pepito Magsino who was also killed in a shootout in Tanauan City, Batangas.

Cardiño added that the arraignment on the suspects already held last October 30, dela Cruz, Gomolon and Narvaez all pleaded not guilty.

“There is also Crisanto Alvarez, a self-confessed suspect. He said he was part of the group who robbed the RCBC,” Cardiño said.

Alvarez is now at the custody of the PNP CALABARZON. The police plans to apply for Alvarez as state witness. The CIDG4A do not want to elaborate on what Alvarez told them as the case is already at the Court and it may affect the hearing.

“We have three kids as witnesses all of them are boys, ages 9, 12 and 13. They are playing in front of the RCBC. In fact one of them even said that the guard whom they call as “Kuya dela Cruz” is the one who told them to stay away from the premises of the bank that day,” Cardiño relates to Manila Shimbun.

The children are under the custody of the police, they are also planning to file for a witness protection program for the witnesses. They are living at the back of the bank, about 100 meters away.

Residents their do not want to tell stories because they said, “We have nothing to do with the case. We do not know what happened because we did not hear anything, we only learned about it when the police arrived,” said of one of the residents their.

The other reason why they do not want to talk is for the safety of the witnesses because some witnesses lives at that area.

Cardiño added that employees at Flying-V gas station in Barngay Turbina, Calamba City positively identified Narvaez and another suspect which later identified as Danilo Letoquet as the one who alighted from the get away car that was used by the suspects. Their get away car is silver Mitsubishi Adventure with plate number XHS-341 owned by Nicdao, one of the slain employee of RCBC.

Letoquet was killed in an encounter in San Jose, Batangas last July 7, 2008. He is allegedly a member of Royal Blood Gangsta involved in numerous killings and robbery-hold up.

Cardiño also said that Jake Javier, Jun Alvarez, Eugenio Hilario and Allan Bago still at-large.

Based on the investigation, according to Cardiño, dela Cruz is really involved in the incident.

“The theory, based on the investigation, they capture first the guard, Aguinaldo Baltazar, then killed him. The suspects all entered at the back door. Then dela Cruz acted as the still on-duty guard who can open the door for the incoming employees,” Cardiño said.

He also added that alarm system of the bank is not functioning anymore. It was also reported, it is the routine of the bank to test their alarm every morning and afternoon at no particular time. But for unknown reason, the RCBC Cabuyao branch is not testing their alarm anymore for almost a month.

Also, their close circuit TV did not function on the time of the incident because it is also not functioning anymore.

Since the case is already filed in Court, both the police and the families of the victims are hoping that justice will prevail.