LA TRINIDAD, Benguet June 30 – A 50-year old taxi driver was robbed of his earnings by two still unidentified armed men along the Puguis-Longlong Road here Monday night.
Police authorities identified the victim as Anito Celestial, 50, a taxi driver who lives in Irisan, Baguio City and hails from Urdaneta City, Pangasinan.
Initial police investigation showed the victim reportedly picked up the two passengers along the conferential road along Naguilian Road who asked him to bring them to Puguis for them to attend a wake of a relative.
However, while they were travelling along the Puguis-Longlong road, he noticed that there was no wake to speak of and then his two passengers suddenly requested him to stop the vehicle in a dark portion of the road.
After he stopped the vehicle, the male passenger seated at the back suddenly alighted while the passenger seated in front suddenly pulled out a still undisclosed type of gun, poked it on his head and announced a holdup.
He attempted to grab the firearm from the suspect but the scuffle between the two individuals resulted to the gun to fire off inflicting damage on the vehicle.
The suspects were able to divest from him over P2,600 in cash representing his daily earnings as they disappeared in the dark.
Responding police operatives tried to search the area where the incident happened but they were not able to locate the suspects, thus, a followup operation is still underway.
By Dexter A. See