Fish vendor held up

A dried fish vendor lost her earnings when she was held up at knifepoint by a still unidentified thief in another mid-day robbery in Bacolod City yesterday, police reports said.

Lolita Jopson, 66, of Purok Banza, Brgy. Tabao, Valladolid town, Negros Occidental, told Police Station 2 investigator, SPO1 Hermelo Jalandoni, that the unidentified man, who was on a motorcycle, stole her P1,500 in cash after pretending that he would buy from her three kilos of dried fish at about 11:45 a.m. yesterday.

“I trusted him because I was happy that I could sell all the fish without having to roam around the city,” Jopson told the DAILY STAR crying, as she recounted how the man threatened her with the weapon.

Jopson said that she and her daughter, Estela Tembrevilla, 42, were walking along B.S. Aquino Drive, when the thief, whom she described to be stocky in build with a military type haircut, told them that he will buy all the fish for his employer, who was waiting at the Riverside Medical Center.

She said that she told Estela to wait for her and she went with the man at a secluded area behind the RMC where the thief, instead of calling his supposed employer, threatened her with a knife, took her cash, and fled.

Jalandoni said the man’s style is a new modus operandi used by thieves to lure their victims.

On Tuesday, an Indian national, who was collecting money from his customers, was also held up by three unidentified robbers at Brgy. Bata, Bacolod.

Police Station 3 commander, Chief Insp. Leonardo Borromeo, said that they still haven’t identified the suspects yet.*PP

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Family of hit-and-run victim
not pursuing case, police say

The family of hit-and-run victim Jury Artillaga will not pursue charges against the driver of the vehicle that killed him and injured his friend Tuesday, the police said yesterday.

Artillaga’s parents executed an affidavit of desistance, waiving any future charges against “Ren-Ren” Lacson through their lawyer, Napoleon Diamante, yesterday, Senior Insp. Levy Pangue, Bacolod City Police Office Traffic Management Unit chief, said.

Pangue said there could have been arrangements between Artillaga’s kin and the Lacsons.

Medior Dairo, 22, Artillaga’s friend who survived also executed a similar affidavit, Pangue said.

Artillaga and Dairo were on a Honda XRM motorcycle that was hit by Lacson, who was driving a Pajero, along the highway in Brgy. Mandalagan at dawn Tuesday.

BCPO-TMU case investigator, PO2 Ranty Bianzon, said that Lacson left Artillaga and Dairo after he hit them, and dragged the motorcycle meters from the main road into the subdivision, before it was finally dislodged from his vehicle.

Lacson’s lawyer, Joaquin Garaygay, had earlier said that they were inclined to reach a settlement with the victims, noting that the Pajero is “fully insured.”

Pangue, meanwhile, said that they could not prod Artillaga’s parents to file charges against Lacson.

They will just endorse Lacson’s driver’s license, which Garaygay surrendered to them, to the Land Transportation Office, he added.

Artillaga, 22, a native of Talisay City, Negros Occidental, who has a one-year-old daughter with his common law wife, Mabel, 18, worked as a referee for basketball and volleyball tournaments and was about to sign a contract to train high school players the day he died.*PP

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4 nabbed for drugs

Four persons were arrested in separate anti-illegal drugs operations in Bacolod City, Thursday, the police said yesterday.

Lester Mercado, 20, and Eduardo Joseph Dayo, 21, were nabbed by Bacolod City Police Office Drug Enforcement Unit members after they allegedly sold sachets of suspected shabu to the officers, who pretended to be buyers at Purok Sigay, Brgy. 2, Bacolod, at dawn Thursday, BCPO director, Senior Supt. Ronilo Quebrar, said.

Ofelia Dedayco, meanwhile, was arrested by BCPO-DEU operatives after seven packets of suspected shabu were found in a search in her house at Brgy. 22, in the city, at about 11 a.m. Thursday, Quebrar said.

Dedayco has been on their watchlist, he added.

Dedayco, whose husband is in jail, said that poverty pushed her into selling prohibited drugs to support her four children, the eldest of whom, is pregnant.

Randy Mascuñana, 33, on the other hand, was collared by Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and Police Station 4 members in a buy-bust operation at Narra Street, Brgy. Villamonte, in the city, at about 10 p.m. Thursday.

Recovered from Mascuñana were an elongated sachet of suspected shabu and the P400 in marked money used in the operation.

Mascuñana claimed that the items were planted by the operatives.*PP

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