Cabbie robbed, shot by gang member

A 44-year old taxi driver is in critical condition after being shot in the head by two unidentified young men in a dawn robbery in barangay Gun-ob, Lapu-Lapu City yesterday.

Jose Dindo Cabreros, a resident of barangay Sawang Calero, Cebu City, was rushed to the Lapu-Lapu City Hospital and was later transferred to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in Cebu City due to his critical condition.

Initial investigation showed that the victim picked up two young men who flagged him down along M.L. Quezon Highway, in barangay Pusok Lapu-Lapu City.

The young men asked Cabreros to bring them to Deca Homes, but held him up after they reached Timpolok road in barangay Gun-ob at 1:45 a.m.

Cabreros handed his earnings to the robbers but irked them after he took sometime to unlock the taxi doors.

One of the robbers shot him in the head and the two ran away.

Despite being unable to talk, Cabreros managed to identify one of the robbers in the rogues gallery presented to him by police at the hospital.

Police said one of the suspects is a gang member in his early 20s.

In a related incident, a taxi driver surrendered to Cebu City police yesterday afternoon or two days after he was accused of killing his neighbor in barangay Camputhaw.

Sofio Cualquera surrendered to Camputhaw barangay councilman Butch Librando who then turned him over to Insp. Delfin Bontuyan.

Bontuyan, deputy chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Metro Cebu said Librando informed him of Cualquera’s surrender at 3 p.m. yesterday.

Cualquera, who was accused of stabbing to death his 49-year-old neighbor Exur Sabillo, said he was told by his family to surrender.

Sabillo, an employee of the Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) was declared dead on arrival by doctors. He was headed home when he saw Sabillo walking in the opposite direction.

“Mura man siya og nasusapinday, nakuyawan ko tingali birahan ko, ako nalang giunhan (It looked like he was walking unsteadily. I was taken aback, thinking I may be attacked so I hit him first),” Cualquera said.Correspondents Chito Aragon and Norman V. Mendoza