Armed robbers strike in 2 towns

CEBU, Philippines - Another girl could now have been sharing the fate of the six-year-old girl in Minglanilla who was abducted outside her school and later found dead in a cliff in Barili.

Luckily, the car-riding abductors failed to kidnap yesterday the 14-year-old girl in Barangay Tulay, also in Minglanilla, southern Cebu. Tulay is the next barangay to Calajo-an, where six-year-old Ella Joy Pique was abducted.

The recent would-be-victim (name withheld for security reasons), according to PO3 Alfredo Pagaling of the Minglanilla Police Station, was walking along sitio Bacay, Barangay Tulay at around 9:45 a.m. yesterday when a speeding red car suddenly stopped beside her.

Based on the mother’s account to barangay officials, the girl, a 2nd year high school student, was initially walking with her mother but later decided to walk ahead so she could go to church in Barangay Inayagan, Naga.

A speeding red car suddenly stopped beside the student. A person then opened the car’s door and suddenly grabbed her arm and forced her to get inside the car.

But the girl, with all her might, was able to flee from the person’s grasp. The car then sped off.

Pagaling said the mother reported the incident to Barangay Poblacion Ward II. Somebody from the barangay who heard about it informed the police.

SPO1 Romeo Barde and PO1 Abelardo Biton went to the student’s house at past noontime yesterday and talked with the mother.

“Di man sad kaayo serious mu-storya ang inahan kay pirmi ra kuno lagi pud. Pero tinuod man jud daw nga nahitabo to matud pa sa iyang anak. Wa lang pud kuno siya mi-report sa pulis kay wa ra man madagit gyud iyahang anak,” Pagaling said. (We did not get any clear details from the mother, except that she insisted that it really happened as narrated by her child. She said she never bothered reporting to the police because her child is safe anyway.)

The student was not at the house when the policemen came as she was sent to Carcar City to attend a religious activity after attending the mass in Naga.

Nobody saw the incident, Pagaling said, and no one came to the police station to give more details.

Pagaling said they will get in touch with the girl so she can shed light on the report.

Senior Insp. Maria Theresa Macatangay, team leader of the Regional Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, said they will look into the incident.

Macatangay said they were busy yesterday doing a follow-up investigation on Ella Joy’s murder, though she begged off from giving details of their update on the case.

Ella Joy was walking with her classmates after classes at 4 p.m. when a Filipina, who was riding on a black Pajero driven by a Caucasian, called her and identified herself as an acquaintance of her mother.

The girl got into the car and the next morning, her body was found wrapped in a white blanket in a cliff in Barangay Sayaw, Barili. A crack was found on her head.

The task force is now eyeing a syndicate behind the murder. They are coordinating with several agencies to solve the case.   - (THE FREEMAN)