I wish this were untrue, and I wish I could undo this, but it needs to be shared.
At around 7:00 pm I withdrew money from
Security Bank Annapolis GH branch, near my office. At 7:30-ish pm, I was
hailing a cab. I only remember the cab being a beat-up white four-door sedan
car with plate number TYL 409.
I can't recall who the driver was at the time
and the name of the cab as written on the cab body outside sadly. I do now
recall the locks were faulty, that the front windshield had the
"cleanfuel" sticker (signifying it's using LPG gas power instead of
gasoline), and black rubber at the back windows. The seats were all black
leather and had the taxi information, which should be printed legibly, all blurry/erased.
We made the turn from Annapolis, to EDSA, and
then the U-turn under Ortigas flyover. We entered corner to White Plains, at
Temple Drive, past People Power Monument. At a vacant lot nearby (before
Meralco), and ironically while I was in the middle of texting my family my whereabouts, four men came in and they kicked him out of the cab.
A short description of the four (images here):
- Man 1 (guy by my right, "Badong"): Crew cut, chiseled face, somewhat pointy chin, small eyes, muscular build but slightly big stomach, with stubble, dark-skinned
- Man 2 (guy by my left): Dark-skinned, round face, chubby cheeks, bulging eyes, no beard/moustache, short hair parted at the middle, wearing blue long-sleeved Adidas sweater with white stripes at shoulders and sleeves, had a baseball cap that looked a lot like the red Air Asia cap with white text, pudgy arms and legs
- Man 3/”Boss”: Square face, flat cheeks, moustached stereotypical bad guy minus the big beard, dark-skinned, far-set bulging eyes, light moustache, beard, wearing blue long-sleeved Adidas sweater with white stripes at shoulders and sleeves, parang may white shirt sa loob, with grey beanie hat, had tubo, gravelly voice, muscular arms, pudgy legs
- Man 4/Driver ("Bobot"): White cap, white shirt, circular glasses, features remind me of Brod Pete (a local comedian), thin, dark-skinned
I heard someone say “pasensya na (I’m sorry)”
but I don’t recall who it is. I do recall the perpetrators drove me around EDSA from Ortigas Avenue to Quezon City, as far as the U-turn right before SM North. They kept threatening to
bring me to Bulacan and rape me especially when I initially refused to give
them my belongings. They took my ATM cards (Security Bank, BPI Express Teller),
my Metrobank credit card, my black BlackBerry Torch 9800 with black Otter
protective case, my personal Nokia phones (one is a pink 6020, the other is a
black 2700 Classic), my Sony Cyber-shot silver T-100 digital camera, and my
black Sony Vaio laptop. After “Boss” made some calls via mobile (they were very clever at keeping the numbers hidden), the gang dropped “Boss”
off at Cubao walkway underpass, EDSA southbound at around 9:00 pm so he could
withdraw money. He came back and tried to strangle, punch, slap, throw
shoes/slippers at me when he couldn't get my credit card PIN out of me (it's
fairly new and I don't memorize the PIN at all). They took turns trying to beat
me up at some point, except for Driver because he was driving. I fought back,
and they told me they would rape me because I wouldn't give them enough money
(they needed PhP20,000 and even used Typhoon Sendong as a reason to hold me
up). At around 10:00 pm they turned into NIA Road near BIR/PDEA in QC, and
threw me out the cab. When Boss tried to hit me with a pipe/tubo, I vaguely
remember clawing and kicking back, taking whatever was left of my things, and
ran. I found myself at the QC Post Office security guard house (at the gate),
and made phone calls to the QC PD, my mother's office, and my best friend's
house as those were the only numbers I could contact.
With my family finally arriving around 11:30 pm to almost midnight, I went to the QC Police Department at Kamuning/EDSA. We waited for a graying-haired 40-ish cop in a white undershirt and police uniform pants named SPO4 Patricio Sanoza (Sanyosa) to whom I gave my statement, which is attached. I told him about what I recall about the cab, but he did not ask at all about identifying the criminals.
My SIMs have all been blocked/disabled, as
have my ATM and credit cards. Unfortunately they have switched off all phones
so I am not sure if they can be traced at this point. They are able to
trace the ATM withdrawal transactions at Metrobank Valencia Hills though. I am cooperating with QCPD in catching the perpetrators.
The following day, a friend gave this
information about the cab that held me up:
Plate Number: TYL 409 / E#: 2E-3254892 / C#:
EE110-8009918 / MV#: 138000000225318 / Col: Freedom White / Sticker#:
2011122773755 / MVType: Car / TradeName: / Make: Toyota/ Series: COROLLA XL M/T
/ YRModel: 2001 / MVClass: FOR - HIRE / Org: MARVIN SANTOS.. / OR#:
000201111852482 / CR#: 000000005541645 / BType:sEDAN - 4-DOOR / FRegDate:
09-25-2001 / LRegDate: 09-30-2011 / Fuel: GAS / Route: MARIKINA ANY PT TO LUZON
/ Franchise#: 96-945 / FEDate: 12-31-2007 / Total Apps: 0 /Total Alarms: 0
/ Customer ID CO1378000031312 / Add: 10
MAYSAN ST. VALENZUELA
Separately, I dropped by the
QCPD Kamuning once more to get the official, correct copy of the police report I originally filed. There I met a woman named Donna Araujo who was
held up on Christmas Day from Main Avenue in Cubao and dropped off at Balete
Drive which is very similar to what happened to me. I am trying to get her
assistance as she saw the name of the car, which is made purely of consonant
letters.
Please stay safe everyone. Hope your Christmas is better than mine. I've seen posts where people blame me for not being vigilant -- excuse me, but I was held up right in the middle of sending my parents an SMS where I was riding, the point here is not whether or not I should've been vigilant but that they still ambushed me anyway even after acting towards my own self-preservation!
And to these motherfuckers who hurt me and others like me, I hope and pray you lose everything you hold dear -- every body part, every item, every person, every business, every bit of cash, and every generation of your beloved families and clans -- as befits the punishment you have long tried to avoid.
And to these motherfuckers who hurt me and others like me, I hope and pray you lose everything you hold dear -- every body part, every item, every person, every business, every bit of cash, and every generation of your beloved families and clans -- as befits the punishment you have long tried to avoid.
Links:
- My original Facebook post on this subject = https://www.facebook.com/ligayaharuka/posts/10150479183713815
- The ABS-CBN/Bandila news clip (December 23; easily viewed outside the Philippines via The Filipino Channel) = http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/video/nation/metro-manila/12/23/11/cops-warn-modus-during-holidays
- The ABS-CBN text version of the same news (December 23) = http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/12/23/11/woman-attacked-robbed-inside-taxi
- NEW: I finally managed to scan the cartographic sketches I had asked a key contact (who must remain anonymous until this case is solved, I owe this man and the people who got me to him greatly as I cannot achieve this drawing style myself) make. Here they are: man 1, man 2, man 3 (minus the beanie, which I tried to describe and even draw but somehow didn't make it to the sketch), and man 4.
