3 rob cabbie for bingo money
Three men were arrested yesterday after they held up a taxi driver and carjacked his vehicle so they could go to a bingo outlet and gamble.
Archie Angob, Vicente Baltazar and Ramil Layan were brought to the Navotas police station after they were arrested at a bingo outlet in Harrison Plaza in Manila.
Taxi driver Norberto Pagnanawon, 60, said he was held up along C-4 Road in Navotas City by the three men at around 1:30 a.m. yesterday.
Pagnanawon said Baltazar pointed an ice pick at him, threatened to kill him and pushed him out of his vehicle.
Pagnanawon’s son, Merbert, said his father, following the location indicated by the taxi’s GPS tracker device, went to the bingo outlet at Harrison Plaza and found the vehicle.
The driver then asked police officers at the Malate police station for help.
He later learned from the police that the suspects were arrested while they were playing bingo.
When the suspects faced the Navotas police, Baltazar said he just needed money for drinks and bingo that night.
“Please forgive us, sir, even though we will have a case,” Baltazar told the driver in Filipino.
They are set to face robbery-holdup and carnapping charges. Carnapping is a nonbailable offense.
The other two suspects denied conspiring with Baltazar to rob Pagnanawon, saying Baltazar only invited them to hang out.
The suspects said they did not know there was a police station near the bingo outlet.
Asked by police what he could say to the suspects, Pagnanawon said he was willing to give them money had they not held him up.
“I’m a generous man,” Pagnanawon told the suspects.
The suspects said they did not win back the P3,500 they bet in bingo games after stealing the money from Pagnanawon.