P1.5-million teachers' bonuses lost to robbers

TAYABAS, Quezon, Philippines – Three school officials here lost P1.5 million in mid-year bonuses for teachers to three robbers who held them up after they had withdrawn the money from a bank in Lucena City yesterday.

The three officials – Josefina Baquiran, district supervisor of the Mauban South School; Leonor Jubelea, principal of the Bagong Bayan Elementary School; and Reyvi Faraon, principal of the Barangay Polo Elementary School – told police that three men on board a motorcycle fired shots to force them to alight from their van and then took the cash amounting to P1,543,613.50 for the mid-year bonuses of teachers in the Mauban south district. – Michelle Zoleta