Foreman struck in the face, loses money to robbers

CEBU, Philippines - A foreman of a construction company was injured after he was hit with a piece of wood and a hollow block by two robbers who broke into a classroom where he was sleeping, Friday midnight in Barangay Lusong, Tuburan town.

Elmer Luceño, who works as a foreman for Juga Builders Construction based in Barangay Mangga, landed at the hospital after sustaining wounds to his face and chest.

Suspect Rene Llorca, 32, was arrested after he was identified by the victim.

Investigation showed that the victim was sleeping inside a classroom in Lusong Elementary School where he and some construction workers were doing construction works when two persons sneaked inside and hit his chest with a piece of wood and his face with a hollow block.

The robbers then took Luceño’s P5,800 cash and fled, but the victim recognized one of them.

The victim reported the incident to the police and a hot pursuit operation was conducted resulting to Lorca’s arrest in the afternoon.

The suspect will be charged with robbery with intimidation.

Meanwhile, a house helper is being hunted down after she allegedly stole at least P227,000 from her employer who is a sub-dealer of electronic load in Barangay Guba, Cebu City last Thursday.

Miraflor Limpag, 31, allegedly stole P83,000 worth of load wallet and P144,000 worth of sales proceeds from Amytes Miñoza.

Miñoza, who also owns a sari-sari store, was reportedly about to purchase load from the main dealer, but was refused as she has not allegedly settled her account yet.

According to Miñoza, the manager of the load company told her that she still has a balance of P83,000, which made her confused since she allegedly had been paying on time for every load purchase.

Miñoza then asked for a printout of all her load transactions including the numbers of the retailers whom she made those transactions with.

She found out that there were many retailers whom they have sent e-load to and decided to call them to get further information.

Most of the retailers were from the mountain barangays in Cebu City who told her that they have already paid for the load transactions which were collected by Limpag.

Miñoza further discovered that the proceeds of her sari-sari store have also gone missing.

The victim looked for her househelper, but the latter was nowhere to be found. Limpag’s parents also allegedly do not know their daughter’s whereabouts.

According to Miñoza, she and her family have already trusted Limpag since she has been a househelper of the family for a long time already.

The victim reported the incident to the authorities Friday afternoon. She will file charges for qualified theft against the suspect.

In another incident, at least P10,000 cash was stolen by unknown persons who burglarized a store in Barangay Poblacion, Sibonga town last Friday.

Emiliana Ponce, 76, was reportedly about to open the store early Friday morning when she discovered that the ceiling on the second floor was destroyed.

She checked the store’s table drawer and found out that the P10,000 sales proceeds were already missing.

Inside the store, the police recovered a crow bar believed to have been used by the burglars. — Bryner L. Diaz and Grace Melanie I. Lacamiento /NSA (FREEMAN)