Cavite store owner robbed, gunned down

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna, Philippines – While police were preoccupied with the graduation rites of the Philippine National Police Academy attended by President Aquino in Silang, Cavite on Monday, at least five armed men robbed and killed a store owner elsewhere in the town.

Fifty-six-year-old businessman Alberto Balintag, owner of Celbert store, was shot in the head with a .45-caliber pistol when he resisted, according to Chief Inspector Gil Toralba, Silang police chief.

Toralba said the robbers took about P2 million in cash and commandeered the motorcycles of two men passing by the area in Poblacion 4 instead of using their Toyota Corolla.

“We are looking at an inside job because the robbery was well-planned. They knew the exact time and place when the victim would deposit his earnings of P2 million to the bank,” Toralba said.