DIGOS CITY -- One of two female robbery victims was shot and had her face slashed when three unidentified armed men commandeered her sports utility vehicle Wednesday and robbed her and her friend of their valuables, authorities said.

Senior Police Officer 2 Esdras delos Santos, city police investigator, said Renalyn Mundad, 24, and her friend Irene Iligan, were on their way home from a bar here when the incident took place.

He said Mundad was starting her vehicle when the men approached and forcibly took over and shoved the two women in the back seat.

Delos Santos said, “One of the men drove the vehicle, the other watched the two women and the third followed on a motorcycle,” he said.

Upon reaching a dimly lit portion of the road in Tiguman village here, Delos Santos said the armed men started divesting Mundad and Iligan of their valuables.

Before fleeing, they shot Mundad twice, hitting her on the legs and slashed her face with a knife, according to Delos Santos.

Munda was rushed to the hospital where she is recuperating.

Chief Inspector Anthony Padua, city police chief, said he believed that the armed men only took the victims' valuables to make the incident appear like a robbery, but the motive could be deeper than that.

"If it was a case of simple robbery, why did they have to shoot one of the victims and slash her face?" Padua said, adding that they are conducting further investigation.