Cotabato cops raise alert on 'riding-in-tandem' robbers

COTABATO CITY--Authorities here are on the lookout for riding-in-tandem robbers who prey on students even on broad daylight near school vicinities.

On Saturday alone, police received at least four complaints from victims of riding-in-tandem robbers in various parts of the city.

“Out of the four robbery-snatching incidents, three of the victims pointed to common attackers aboard a black Honda XRM motorbike bearing no plate number,” said Senior Insp. Ruel Zafra, city police spokesperson.

Zafra said the first snatching incident occurred around 8:45 a.m. near the Notre Dame University along Barangay Poblacion 4. A female  student was robbed of her expensive mobile phone.

“The helpless victim handed over her phone out of fear,” Zafra noted, adding that the attackers were onboard a seemingly old motorbike and not the much newer XRM scrambler.

The second incident took place around 5:00 p.m. of the same day along the stretch of Sinsuat Avenue, near a school with a male student as victim, this time by black XRM tandem.

Barely 10 minutes later, the same tandem struck and victimized another female student in Barangay Rosary Heights 9 near Sinsuat Avenue. At 6:40 p.m., the black XRM tandem once again robbed another lady student with her bag and mobile phone along Barangay Rosary Heights 6, also near another school in Sinsuat Avenue.

The estimated loot of the riding-in-tandem gang was placed at PHP100,000 for Saturday alone. Zafra said a street closed-circuit television (CCTV) security camera caught the modus operandi of the perpetrators in one of the incidents and is now the basis of the description of the XRM motorbike used by the syndicate.

“The same CCTV footage showed the physical description of the robbers onboard the motorbike so we have a lead somehow in our follow up operations,” he said.

Zafra said the city police office has set up stricter measures on motorbikes plying the city streets, especially during nighttime, following Saturday’s robbery incidents. (PNA)