Monday, February 23, 2004
Ex-teacher robbed, killed in Pinamungajan
A RETIRED public school teacher died but his five-year-old grandson escaped when a neighbor broke into their house in Barangay Tajao, Pinamungajan town past midnight yesterday and robbed them.
The robber was said to be hooked on drugs.
Though it was dark, five-year-old Christofil Arrogante Jr. managed to walk down from his grandfather’s home in Sitio Bulobogan and reached the house of Josefa and Alma Palomar, where he sought help.
The boy and his grandfather, Filipino Arrogante, 63, were asleep in their bedroom when suspect Renan Otor broke inside. A noise in the kitchen woke them up.
Christofil told police investigators that his Lolo went out of their room to check, but minutes later, he heard a scuffle.
When he ventured out, he saw his grandfather being hit in the head by Otor, who used a piece of wood.
Realizing the danger, Christofil ran towards the door to seek help from their other neighbors, but before he could open it something hard hit him in the back.
He kept running.
The Palomars, from whom Christofil sought help, brought the boy to the house of SPO4 Benny Birao, chief of the Pinamungahan police, who lives less than a kilometer from Arrogante’s house.
Birao, together with other residents, arrived at Arrogante’s house at 4:45 a.m. only to see the grandfather already dead, with blood over his head and face and his belongings scattered on the ground.
Arrogante has children, but all of them were in Cebu City taking care of their two-story apartment, leaving him with his five-year-old grandson.
PO3 Nonilon Estonito said that in their investigation, relatives of Arrogante claimed that the victim lost P80,000, two gold rings valued at P17,000, a watch worth P3,000 and a P23,000 Yamaha portable organ.
A bloodstained piece of coconut lumber, about five inches long and two inches wide, was found near Arrogante’s body.
Estonito said the suspect is a brother of Dante Otor, whom the police caught in a buy-bust operation last year.
He said the victim had intended to establish a school for nursery and kindergarten, using the money the suspect took. AIV
(February 23, 2004 issue)
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