Village chief shot by robbers

A village chairman was shot and injured when he tried to fight off five armed robbers in front of his house in Novaliches, Quezon City late Thursday afternoon.

Ernesto Tanigue, 52, chairman of Barangay Gulod, sustained a gunshot wound in the torso. He underwent an operation before dawn yesterday and was declared stable in the intensive care unit of the Novaliches General Hospital in the morning, said Superintendent Renato Valebia, commander of the Quezon City Police District Station 4.

Valebia said two of the suspects were armed – one with a .9mm pistol and another with a .45 handgun – while two others drove the two Honda XRM motorcycles they used as getaway vehicles along with another suspect.

No one was able to take note of the license plates of the motorcycles, Valebia said.

There was still no official report on the total amount of loot that the suspects took away, but Valebia said it could amount to less than P100,000 in cash and valuables from Tanigue’s pawnshop in the same village.

According to Valebia, the incident happened at around 5:15 p.m. Thursday just as Tanigue was about to enter his house in Good Haven Village, also in Barangay Gulod. He had just come from his pawnshop, which is near the Santa Monica cockpit.

Tanigue, along with his driver Ricardo Tapia, who was reportedly carrying a traveling bag bearing cash and valuables from the pawnshop, had just gotten out of their vehicle when the suspects arrived.