Robbers kill forex shop worker

MANILA, Philippines - Two unidentified motorcycle-riding men killed a foreign exchange shop employee and wounded a girl during a robbery in Malabon City Saturday night.

Victoria Gines, 56, a resident of Barangay Concepcion also in Malabon, died of a bullet wound in the body while Cristina Perez, 14, sustained a gunshot wound in the right thigh.

Gines was waiting for a ride home at the corner of C. Arellano and De Jesus streets in Barangay Concepcion at around 6:40 p.m. when two men riding on a motorcycle without a license plate grabbed her bag.

Gines held on to her bag and hit one of the robbers with her umbrella. The suspect kicked Gines, but she continued fighting, prompting the man to shoot her in the left shoulder.

The bullet went through Gines’ back and hit Perez, who was also waiting for ride home from school, in the thigh. 

The robber took Gines’ bag and fled on the motorcycle with his cohort toward Barangay San Agustin.

Gines died on the way to the Pagamutang Bayan ng Malabon while Perez remains confined at the Tondo Medical Center.

“The suspects could have thought that Gines has money for she (worked) at a moneychanger, but they were wrong. She was just a mere employee,” Senior Police Officer 2 Ferdinand Espiritu told The STAR.

Espiritu said Gines had just borrowed P1,000 from her boss, bought vegetables at a public market in the area and was on her way home when she was robbed and killed by the suspects. – Pete Laude, Jerry Botial