Alert P’sinan town execs foil payroll rob attempt

Sto. Tomas, Pangasinan — Municipal employees here almost became penniless after three motorcycle-riding men tried to hold up the town treasurer after she withdrew their payroll from the bank last Wednesday afternoon.

Thanks to municipal treasurer Julieta Alvarado and her husband, Boni, the municipal engineer, who were alert enough to speed away as the robbers trailed them along the highway in Barangay Bacag, Villasis town.

The robbers, only in their 20s and armed with caliber .45 pistols, pursued the Alvarados as they, along with another female municipal employee, were returning to the municipal hall after withdrawing the payroll from the Urdaneta City branch of the Land Bank of the Philippines.

The robbers drove near the Alvarados’ vehicle and ordered Boni, who was driving, to stop. But Boni sped away instead.

The robbers fired their guns, hitting the couple’s car seven times and slightly wounding Julieta on her right shoulder. They eventually gave up.

Superintendent Manuel Obrera, Urdaneta City police chief, said the robbers were probably the cohorts of five robbery suspects who were arrested recently and implicated in a number of holdups in Mangaldan and Villasis towns and Dagupan City.

The police did not disclose the amount the Alvarados were carrying.

The Alvarados said they could identify the robbers, adding that they saw them at the bank when they were withdrawing the payroll.