First to fall victim was 23-year-old Henry Sombilon, a collector of Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc., who lost P31,000 cash and his cellphone to two robbers in barangay Cantubaon in Tabuelan town. The second was businessman Floro Rosales who was held up in his hometown of Dalaguete and lost to a lone robber his bag containing P28,000 in cash.
Sombilon, a resident of Tuburan town, went to Tabuelan to meet the members of the foundation and collect their dues. But on his way home with his motorcycle, two bolo-wielding men with faces masked with bonnets stopped him at the boundary of Tabuelan and San Remegio towns.
The men announced a hold-up, then forced him to lie on the ground, and divested him of his money and his cellphone, before fleeing from the scene.
Tabuelan policemen believed the robbers could be residents of the town who were familiar of his activities and itinerary.
Rosales, on the other hand, had just come from collecting dues from his customers when a masked robber held him up while walking midway back to his truck parked at a distance in a secluded area at barangay Malonis in Dalaguete.
The lone robber asked Rosales to lie prone on the ground, quickly grabbed his bag containing his collection, and ran away. He said he wanted to cry for help to his truck man but then the truck was still a good distance off the scene of the robbery.
Rosales, a resident of barangay Casay in Dalaguete and proprietor of King Tex Trucking, lost his collection of P28,000 in cash.
Dalaguete policeman SPO3 Benjamin Villarhermosa said the robber could be a town resident who knows the victim and his activities. - Flor Z. Perolina