FOUR people were robbed of valuables by two motorcycle-riding gunmen in a series of robbery hold-ups that took place 15 minutes apart from each incident in Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur, the police said Thursday, November 08.
The police said the gunmen, riding a black motorcycle, claimed they were agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in one of the three incidents.
Chief Inspector Helen Galvez, Police Regional Office-Zamboanga Peninsula information officer, said the first incident happened at 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Jamisola Street, Santa Lucia village where Entisam Palada, 24, a tricycle driver, reported that he was fetching two passengers when one of the gunmen, armed with a caliber .45 pistol, approached him and “declared that he was a member of NBI.”
Palada told the police the suspect forcibly took his cellular phone worth P6,000 and his identification card and “thereafter fled towards Jamisola Street corner Duterte Street, Santa Lucia, Pagadian City.”
Galvez said the second incident was at 8:45 p.m. where Elmer Gravador, 25, said he was walking along Urro Street in Sto. Niño village when a man also armed with caliber .45 pistol approached and ordered him to get down and took his cellular phone.
Galvez said the third one was around 9 p.m. where the students Rachelle Gonzales, 18 and Jomar Sarino, 18, were walking along Consolacion Street corner Rizal Avenue in Balangasan village when held-up and robbed by a man armed with the same pistol.
She said the suspect forcibly took the cellular phone of Gonzales worth P8,000 and fled towards an alley at Rizal Avenue.
The three separate robbery hold-up cases are being investigated to determine the suspects behind the incidents, the information officer added. (SunStar Philippines)