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Saturday, December 16, 2006
Barangay treasurer robbed of P200-T payroll
By Danilo V. Adorador III
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- Barangay Patag personnel may celebrate a blue Christmas after their treasurer who had just withdrawn their salary from a bank was robbed in broad daylight just several meters away from a police station.
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Three motorcycle-riding men robbed Concepcion R. Dalapag, a treasurer in Barangay Patag, and fled with barangay personnel's wages and honoraria amounting to P200,000, police said.
The incident occurred around 3:30 p.m. Friday at corner Capistrano-Neri streets, near the Police Precinct 1 (PP1).
The robbery came in the wake of an earlier heist that resulted in the loss of P2.5 million worth of jewelry owned by a Pagadian City woman trader on Thursday.
News of their compensation vanishing into thin air saddened barangay officials and employees, who had banked on their wages to tide them through the Yuletide season.
"The barangay has around 80 personnel and this incident leaves us with nothing to spend for Christmas," said Patag barangay councilor Everardo Febrero, who first heard of the incident in a radio report, in a phone interview.
However, the victim and the witnesses, in interviews with a radio station, had varied accounts of the incident.
The 55-year-old Dalapag was about to return to the Patag barangay hall after withdrawing the money from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) in Corrales Avenue, said police investigator Albert Apellanes, who cut short Sun.Star's interview because the report relating to the incident got erased in the computer.
When Sun.Star made a follow-up an hour after the first interview, Apellanes said it was not clear if Dalapag's robbers were armed, and that the incident had been a "snatching," and not a hold-up.
However, several vendors who witnessed the incident told dxIF Bombo Radyo that two of the suspects approached Dalapag and, at gunpoint, demanded the money.
Dalapag was buying at the time a cellphone card, one vendor said, adding that one of the men even covered Dalapag's mouth to prevent her from shouting.
The suspects then boarded a waiting get-away motorcycle, passing by the nearby police precinct as they sped to Burgos Street, witnesses said.
When pressed by this paper on the conflicting accounts of the victim and witnesses, Apellanes -- who is investigating the case -- declined to give more details because "the victim wants this incident to be off the press."
Pressed further for answers, the police officer said he was not at liberty to divulge more details, although admitting that the case was of public interest because the lost amount was public fund.
He also refused to answer if any of their personnel was posted near the crime scene considering its proximity to their station.
Sun.Star tried to contact the barangay Patag chairman and Dalapag at 6 p.m., but a barangay worker said the two were still attending to the case.
City Director Aurelio Trampe, who said he was only informed of the incident hours after it happened, said he will personally investigate the case on Monday.
Regional Police Director Teodorico Capuyan told police Press Corps members Friday night that he will order an investigation into the incident. (Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Zamboanga. (December 16, 2006 issue)
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