Power utility workers lose P1.6M to lone robber in Maguindanao

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Mystery shrouds a highway heist on Thursday involving a gunman who robbed workers of a power utility of P1.6 million worth of collections right inside their vehicle while in transit at high speed.

Robbery victims Hanna Malang, 26, Basit Benito, 52, and Gerome Romuar, 39, had told investigators the lone suspect possibly managed to sneak into their air-conditioned van while parked in one of the towns they toured to collect payments for the Maguindanao Electric Cooperative (Magelco).

The suspect allegedly emerged from underneath the rear-most seat of Magelco’s Toyota van, while they were at a secluded stretch of the Cotabato-Gen. Santos Highway in Barangay Pinguiaman in Datu Odin town in the first district of Maguindanao, and immediately declared a holdup.

Malang is the cashier of Magelco, whose main office is in Capiton area in the same municipality, while Benito and Romuar are security guard and driver of the power cooperative outfit, respectively.

The three Magelco employees claimed they were subdued by the suspect by strapping their hands together with a duct tape before he ran away bringing him the money they were to bring to their office.

Chief Inspector Lendsy Sinsuat, chief of the Datu Odin municipal police, said they will still subject the three Magelco employees to extensive interrogation to determine if there was foul play in the incident.

“They all said they did not know of the presence of a fourth person inside the vehicle,” Sinsuat said.

He said the three Magelco employees had alleged that the suspect was armed with a .45 caliber pistol.

Sinsuat said he and his subordinates could hardly put together what is for them pieces of a jigsaw that could give them a clearer picture of the robbery puzzle.