Police to monitor shoppers buying hammer or wrench, NCRPO chief says

MANILA, Philippines – Shoppers be warned. You may be monitored by police for buying a hammer or wrench as these are now considered potential weapons for a crime.

“Mga bibili ng pipe wrench, martilyo, anything na pampalo will be monitored [Those who will buy pipe wrench, hammers, anything that can be used to smash (something). . .],” Director Leonardo Espina of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) said Friday.
Espina visited the SM Megamall, scene of a robbery last Saturday night.

Reports said that two of the six suspects had used pipe wrenches to smash the windows of two jewelry stores on the ground floor of the mall’s department store, one had a .45 caliber pistol while the others served as lookouts. The wrenches were bought at the hardware store which was also inside the mall.

The suspects have since remained at large.

The incident at Megamall was followed by two more at Robinsons Magnolia in Quezon City and Robinsons’ Place in Ermita, which both occurred Wednesday.

Philippine National Police chief Alan Purisima, in a talk with the Philippine Daily Inquirer Wednesday night, dismissed the rash of shooting at the malls, referring to January’s figure of similar incidents this year as being much lower compared to the same figures in the same period for 2012.