Robbers kill manager, take P.25-M payroll

A 27-year-old marketing manager died of multiple gunshot wounds after he was fired upon by armed robbers who escaped with P250,000 payroll money shortly before noon yesterday in Tondo, Manila.

Police said Christopher Lumbang, of San Raphael Village, Navotas, expired while being treated at the Tondo Medical Center.

Police said the four suspects who were riding in tandem on two motorcycles blocked Lumbang’s car, a Toyota Corolla, along Honorio Lopez Boulevard near the boundary of Manila and Navotas.

At gunpoint, the suspects knocked at the driver’s window.  Lumbang refused to open it, prompting the gunmen to fire.

After shooting the victim, the suspects took away the payroll money worth P250,000. The gunmen spared the victim’s cousin, Michael Cunanan, 19, who was in the car at the time of the heist.

Police Officer 3 Juancho Cortez, who was detailed to secure the perimeter of the nearby Security Bank, responded and engaged the robbers in a shootout. The gunmen managed to escape on their motorcycles.

Police said the suspects may have been tailing the victim from the time he withdrew the payroll money from the Metrobank North Bay Boulevard branch.

Superintendent Romulo Sapitula, chief of the Raxabago, Tondo police station, said his men recovered the suspects’ two motorcycles, a blue Suzuki Rider with plate number NC-7259 and a red scooter with plate number NC-5461, during a hot pursuit operation.

A blue t-shirt with bloodstains and a gunshot hole on the left sleeve was also recovered, signifying that one of the suspects may have been injured, according to Sapitula.

There were also reports that the armed suspects transferred to a Toyota Revo with plate number WRP-336, Sapitula added.

He said he has dispatched a crack team of operatives to a southern Metro Manila city for a follow-up operation.