A COMMUNICATION Arts junior was stabbed by an unidentified man after she refused to hand over her bag last August 26 at around 12 noon inside a jeepney parked along Quezon Boulevard in Quiapo.
The victim, Maila Bonaverte, said she was alone in the jeepney, waiting for it to be filled when a man, suspectedly intoxicated on drugs, went in and sat across from her. When Bonaverte opened her bag to get fare, the man tried to grab her bag, but the victim refused. The man then stabbed her right side but fled empty-handed.
“I didn’t feel the pain until the onlookers started shouting for help. Para kasing suntok lang (ang naramdaman ko), she said.
Bonaverte suspects that the driver, who allegedly did not lift a finger to help, was an accomplice.
“Wala man lang ginawa yung driver para tulungan ako. Tinigil lang niya ‘yung jeep. Ayaw pa nga niya akong dalhin sa ospital at sinabihan pa ako na lumipat na lang sa taxi, ” Bonaverte added.
She was eventually taken to the UST Hospital emergency room after a good samaritan paid the driver to rush the victim to the hospital. Released from the hospital two days later, Bonaverte said she would file a formal complaint against her assailant.
“Filing a formal complaint means I would have to go back to Quiapo and I’m not so keen on seeing Quiapo right now. But I‘m determined to complain so that he won’t be able to do it to others anymore—even though they say na ‘alaga’ ng pulis ‘yung ibang mga holdaper, ” she said. Elka Krystle R. Requinta
