Robbers strike again in whale shark ‘capital’

DONSOL, Sorsogon, Philippines—A lone guard was killed and at least P700,000 in cash and valuables were taken at a resort in Donsol, Sorsogon, in a robbery rare in the town known as a sanctuary of one of the gentlest creatures of the ocean, the whale shark.

Police said masked men wielding a shotgun and a bolo barged into the Elysia Beach Resort in the village of Pangpang and pulled off a heist whose repercussions on the town’s booming tourism industry anchored on the whale shark, or butanding, were being watched closely.

Police said the masked men took off with P700,000 in cash and valuables from the Korean couple who owned the resort after killing the resort’s lone guard with a hack in the nape from a bolo.

Senior Supt. Hereberto Olitoquit, Sorsogon police chief, said tourists in the resort were unaware of the heist until police arrived.

Olitoquit said one of the men hacked Manuel Apuyan Jr., the lone guard on duty at that time, with a bolo in the nape and took his .38-cal. revolver. Apuyan was dead on the spot, said Olitoquit.

The robbers, said to be wearing masks of Halloween characters, proceeded to the room of Korean couple Kim Sang Gun and Eun Song Yee and, at gunpoint, declared they were robbing the place.

Olitoquit said the robbers took at least P476,000 in cash and valuables worth at least P224,000. They fled toward the shore of the village.

Dollars, euros and pesos were among the cash taken by the robbers while cell phones, cameras, a computer monitor and a laptop were among the valuables taken during the heist.

The robbery was the second this year in the laid back town. On March 3, robbers struck in a rural bank in the town and took at least P300,000.