ONLY a month after the killing of Nursing student Jef Marty Longyapon along A.H. Lacson Ave., a senior Law student was mugged in the same place last Nov. 16.
The victim, who asked not to be identified, said she had just gotten off a jeepney near Pi y Margal St. at around 6:45 p.m when a woman called her attention and told her that she dropped a piece of paper.
When she went back to confirm if the paper was hers, the suspect put her arm on the victim’s shoulder, pressed a knife against her side, and declared a holdup. Two men and another woman immediately approached them and started to look for valuables in her bag while carrying a conversation so as not to arouse suspicion.
The victim said the suspects went away on a motorcycle with her watch worth P2,500 and P12,600 of her salary which she just received from a part-time job in Makati.
The victim informed a security guard of the incident, but opted not to file a report with the UST Safety and Security Service (UST-SSS).
UST-SSS detachment commander Clemente Dingayan said there are security personnel who rove outside UST from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., but crimes continue to elude them. Barangay tanods are more properly the keepers of the peace outside the school, he said.
Meanwhile, Central Student Council president John Voltaire Almeda said the Office of the Secretary General is organizing a “Sampaloc Crime Watch” to keep a “crime-free” perimeter outside the University.
Almeda said UST officials have been talking with police, tanods, and establishment owners near UST about the proposed security web. When the clusters of this organization have been formed, security personnel in other establishments will not only guard their own grounds, but also look after student-patrons. (See special report on security.)
Dingayan said the cooperation of students would also greatly help in the prevention of crime, through acts as simple as heading straight home after their classes.
