Biting passenger foils Makati jeep holdup

MANILA, Philippines — A 26-year-old employee of a nonprofit organization on Tuesday night thwarted a jeepney robbery by biting the arm of one of the two robbers who tried to seize her valuables on Chino Roces Avenue in Makati City.

The incident again raised the alarm on the string of robberies on Chino Roces, one of the major roads in the city’s central business district and listed by the local government as one of Makati’s crime-prone areas.

The Makati police noted that street crimes continued to be a problem in these areas despite the increased deployment of mobile patrol teams.

In a Philippine Daily Inquirer interview Wednesday, Angeli Alba, a Makati resident, said she was still shaken by her experience on the jeepney she took on Chino Roces around 9:45 the previous night.

As the jeepney approached Washington Street, two knife-wielding men declared a holdup and ordered her and a male passenger to hand them their gadgets.

Alba said she pleaded with the robber to let her remove the SIM (subscriber identity module) card from her “old” phone before giving it to him.

“When I was handing my phone to him, the robber told me: ‘Hindi ’yan, yung isa (No, give me the other one instead),’” said Alba, who was also carrying a tablet computer at the time.

Fearing for her life since the robber kept pointing the knife at her, she took a risk and fought back by biting the arm of the robber. She then let out a loud scream that drew the attention of other commuters and motorists nearby.

This startled the robbers and sent them jumping off the jeepney. One boarded a blue motorcycle driven by an apparent accomplice who had been tailing the jeepney, while the other quickly walked away from view.

Alba noted that the suspects were “neatly dressed,” with one wearing a polo shirt, and headphones connected to a cellphone when he boarded the jeepney.

Since August, the Makati police have arrested six robbery suspects who had victimized commuters on Chino Roces.