6 robbers strike at Butuan hotel

BUTUAN CITY — "Lord, help us."

Seventy-two-year-old Linda Burgos, owner of the Butuan Royal Hotel, could only mutter these words as one of six men pointed a gun to her head and demanded her money and jewelry before dawn yesterday.

The six robbers entered the hotel at about 1:20 a.m., pretending to be customers planning to check in. Once inside though, they accosted security guard Jimmy Angeles, 36, pulled out their handguns, handgrenades and knives and announced the heist.

Three of the robbers tied up Angeles and the bellboy, a certain Dodong, and locked them up inside the comfort room on the second floor, their mouths bound with masking tape.

The robbers then dragged front desk officer Gloria Noel, 33, to the second floor and told her to open the room of Burgos.

Once inside the room, they poked their guns at Burgos and her husband and tied up the couple and Noel and shoved them inside the comfort room.

They then ransacked the Burgoses’ room and took all the cash and jewelry they could find.

Before leaving, the robbers whiled away their time at the hotel lobby, puffing cigarettes and sipping imported wine they took from the bar.

They even bade goodbye to a couple who left the hotel unaware of what was going on. "Thank you for checking in," they were quoted as saying.

Police said the robbers left the hotel at about 2 a.m.

Jess Jemida, chairman of Barangay Leon Kilat where the hotel is located, blamed the lack of police visibility for the robbery.

Jemida echoed the apprehension of most Caraga residents on the rising criminality in the region.