Manila cops intensify patrols in Ermita

Will the robbery-slay of a graduating male nursing student of the University of the Philippines-Manila remain unsolved just like the case of a pharmacy student who was stabbed dead by a suspected robber near her boarding house more than three months ago?

This was the apprehension raised by residents in Ermita, Manila where the twin slayings occurred, and where holdup and robbery incidents rampantly happened especially during the night, according to them.

WPD director Chief Superintendent Pedro Bulaong has immediately ordered the deployment of more patrol beats along Taft Avenue especially at night. Mobile patrol cars were also ordered to intensify repressive patrol of crime-prone areas.

Last Thursday night, four holdupmen stabbed dead 20-year-old Jim Carlo Calub when he tried to resist a robbery attempt inside a mega-taxi along Taft Avenue in Ermita. He sustained three stab wounds in the chest.

Witnesses blamed the absence of policemen in the area which resulted in the easy escape of the suspects despite the ensuing commotion right in the middle of a busy thoroughfare.

Immediately after the incident, Ermita police station chief Senior Superintendent Elmer Jamias announced the arrest of two suspected holdupmen who could be among the killers of Calub.

However, witnesses failed to positively identify the arrested holdupmen as the perpetrators of the robbery-slaying of Calub. Officer-on-case SPO3 Virgo Villareal said a team from the Western Police District’s homicide section are now conducting relentless follow-up operations to snare the suspects.

The death of Calub followed that of the slaying of Diana Rose Dawang, a 19-year-old nursing student at the Emilio Aguinaldo College in Manila, some three months ago.

Dawang was waylaid and stabbed dead by the assailant as she was about to enter her boarding house in Ermita on that fateful night. Her personal belongings were taken by the suspect. Police have yet to solve the crime.

A few days beofre the opening of classes this month, Jamias arrested seven notorious holdupmen preying on commuters along Taft Avenue as part of the police massive operations to clear the metropolis of lawless elements. No one among the arrested holdupmen turned out to be the killer of Dawang.