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Saturday, January 14, 2006
4 coeds fell prey to hold-up men
By Erwin Ambo S. Delilan
WHILE the police in Bacolod City are still facing a blank wall on their investigation on the recent Pizza Hut robbery and Burgos-Lacson daylight P144T heist, another four victims fell prey to hold-uppers Friday morning.
The victims, Ellaine Francis, Erlene Joy Pedrina, Elsa Gabayero, and Joan Sondia, are nursing students of West Negros College.
The four are from Panay and are temporarily residing in Barangay 30, Bacolod City.
In a report from Police Precinct 6, in Barangay Taculing, Francis told policemen that at about 5:45 a.m., when the trisikad they were riding reached the corner of Luzuriaga-Sayo streets in Barangay 30, two men armed with a bladed weapon blocked their path.
The suspects then pointed the weapon at them and declared a holdup, and immediately took their cellular phones, more than P1,000 in cash and other personal belongings.
The four said they were also robbed of their various medical apparatus that amounted to more than P20,000.
They said the suspects, who were about 25 years old and above, then fled on foot towards the west direction of Luzuriaga Street, Bacolod City.
City police director Senior Superintendent Pedro Merced has ordered Police Precinct 6 commander Senior Inspector Jonathan Lorilla to immediately act on the incident.
Burgos-Lacson Hold-Up
Meanwhile, SPO3 Enrique Gochoco, of Police Precinct 2, admitted they are still facing a blank wall on their investigation on Thursday's holdup at the corner of Burgos-Lacson Streets.
The three suspects on motorcycle, fled with P114,000 intended for the salaries of the employees of the Sargaso Construction Company in Barangay Alijis.
Gochoco, who is in charge of the case, told Sun.Star Bacolod that they are now investigating two possible motives of the heist.
First, it could be an inside job or second, it was a "hold up me" case.
Gichoco said, "It's very, very hard to reconcile why the suspects, as early as 9 a.m., knew already that victims, Marietta Labis and Renato Estrella, cashier and driver of Sargaso in Alijis, had withdrawn money from Land Bank of the Philippines (on Gatuslao St.)."
Moreover, he added, "It's very impossible to reconcile why Labis left her bag to Estrella when she went to ProMart establishment to check their company's telephone bill."
The holdup, he said, happened only six to eight seconds after Labis went out of their service vehicle, according to accounts of witnesses.
It is also impossible for the suspects to be already in the place of the incident before the victims arrived, he added.
But, nonetheless, he said they are doing everything to resolve the case.
As to whether the suspects in the Burgos-Lacson holdup and the Pizza Hut robbery were the same persons, Gochoco declined to comment.
Last January 8, The Pizza Hut Parlor at Robinsons Place-Bacolod was robbed of P300,000 in cash.
Like the Burgos-Lacson holdup, the belongings of the victims were found in separate canefields in neighboring areas north of Bacolod -- in E.B. Magalona and Silay City.
In the Pizza Hut robbery, the already empty vault was discovered two days after the heist in a canefield in Hacienda Katumbal, Barangay San Jose, in E.B. Magalona town.
As to the Burgos-Lacson case, the personal belongings of Labis was also found in a canefield in Hacienda Adela, Barangay Lantad, Silay City.
Merced, for his part, said the suspects in the recent robbery-hold up cases in
Bacolod might not be residents of the city.
"It could be true that they are outsiders of Bacolod, particularly in northern Negros basing on the manner the suspects are doing in the series of two cases," Merced said.
But he vowed to capture these suspects, saying he has been challenged.
"As if the suspects are challenging me. So, my message to them, I won't surrender. I'll show to them who I am," he added. (With reports from JPP)
(January 14, 2006 issue)
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