Spanish doctor recounts attack in Pasay hotel

Manila, Philippines - A Spanish doctor, stabbed 15 times by a robber who went into her hotel room in Pasay City Thursday night, identified her attacker yesterday as a man “very similar” to the one who had referred her to the hotel.

Beatriz Pereiro, 30, from Bilbao, Spain, remains confined at San Juan de Dios Hospital. She said she lost 500 euros, P1,000 and a pair of earrings to the robber.

According to Pereiro, she was sleeping inside her room on the second floor in the Green View Hotel when she was awakened about 12:48 a.m. on May 19.

She said she found her door “ajar.” She shut it, placed her bag behind the door and went back to bed.

Pereiro said she tried to go back to sleep but felt uneasy. “When I opened my eyes, I saw a man on my right and it looked like he was searching my things,” she said.

Pereiro shouted for help but the man started to punch her in the chest.

”I fought back and jumped to the other side of the bed but he jumped after me and continued to punch me. But this time, he was already armed with an instrument like for breaking of ice,” she said.

The man continued to stab her until she feigned death by covering her face, closing her eyes, and bending her knees.

Pereiro described the assailant as someone around 30 to 35 years old, 1.75 meters in height, with an oval-shaped face, brown complexion, and medium build.

Pereiro could not exactly recall the face of her assailant but told Pasay police that the man was “very similar” to bus conductor Aristotle Axibal of Partas Bus Lines, who recommended to her the hotel on May 18.

Police investigators found that Axibal and his girlfriend were also billeted in the same hotel – beside Pereiro’s room.

In his statement to the police, Axibal said he did not hear any shouting coming from other rooms the night Pereiro was robbed.

Police probers are looking into the possibility that the robber broke into Pereiro’s room through the window.

Pereiro had come from Clark, Pampanga when she boarded the bus to Pasay. It was there she asked for Axibal’s help.

Police said the victim initially wanted to go to Ermita, Manila and asked where she can get a cheap but decent hotel. She even showed the conductor a map but Axibal allegedly told her that Green View Hotel is more convenient because it is supposedly near the airport and the places she wanted to visit.