Pagdilao orders round-the-clock robbery alert
Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao Jr., police regional director, said yesterday intensified actions are needed to run after holdup groups operating in Iloilo province.
Pagdilao issued the directive after another holdup incident was reported in Barotac Viejo town, involving taxi driver Romeo Jodillasin, who was killed by the robbers.
“That’s why, we need to intensify our conduct of checkpoints, especially in the areas of fourth and fifth districts of Iloilo,” Pagdilao said, adding that he will also seek to augment troops of some police stations in the area.
The additional forces will come from the 6th Regional Public Safety Management Battalion.
Pagdilao also instructed Senior Supt. Renato Gumban, director of Iloilo Police Provincial Office, to review the previous holdup cases and determine those involved in the incidents, including those responsible in highway robbery incidents.
Pagdilao said he is giving Gumban a free hand on how to implement initiatives to curb the rising holdup incidents in Iloilo.
The IPPO chief had earlier said it is anticipated that robbery groups would launch heightened operations, and Gumban said they are closely monitoring the groups to neutralize, if not pre-empt their robbery plans.
VICTIM
At around 5:45 a.m. yesterday, the body of 65-year old Jodillasin, driver of Tata Taxi with plate number FWC-96 and a resident of Colon St., Guimbal, was found in a sugarcane plantation in Brgy. San Geronimo, Barotac Viejo.
The area was about 500 kilometers from a nearest house.
Investigators said Jodillasin could have been killed by at least two persons inside his vehicle where a pool of blood was found. The car was left by the roadside.
The victim had 17 stab wounds, they said.
In the past weeks, the IPPO has recorded a series of highway robbery incidents, victimizing passengers of a Ceres Liner bus in Anilao; rice traders in Concepcion; and a businessman in Calinog, where the suspects were arrested.
