LIKE many students who were unwinding after the first semester ended, Nursing sophomore Jef Marty Longyapon, 18, and Hervika Pestaño, 20, a Nursing senior, decided to take a breather in a nearby mall. It was a simple date, but the couple never thought it was their last.
After few hours of strolling in the mall, Longyapon, and Pestaño took a jeepney ride to UST, the Western Police District Station 4 report said. Upon reaching the corner of Dapitan St. and A.H. Lacson Ave., they alighted and decided to walk their way to Espana Blvd. Near P. Florentino St., at around 7:50 p.m., two unidentified men, one armed with a gun and the other with a knife, appeared from behind and declared a hold-up.
Pestaño immediately surrendered her belongings to the robbers, while Longyapon, a martial artist and basketball player of the College of Nursing, refused to give his bag and battled the robbers. In the course of the struggle, Pestaño heard two gun shots. The next thing she knew, her boyfriend was bathing in his own blood. One of the bullets pierced Longyapon’s chest.
A USTH employee brought them to the hospital.
Longyapon, however, did not survive the gunshot wound as USTH doctors pronounced him dead-on-arrival at 8:27 p.m.
Pestaño suffered from nervous breakdown that hospitalized her for three days.
According to UST Security Force detachment commander Clemente Dingayan, they were conducting an investigation on a hold-up incident in Asturias St. when some of his men reported the robbery.
“While we were in Asturias, we received the news from the USTH about another hold-up case,” he said.
USTH head guard Roven de la Rosa said there were no available policemen in the area at that time.
He called police help from the University Belt Area and the Western Police District Station 4 in Sampaloc, Manila.
“The officers responded at around nine in the evening, “ de la Rosa said.
This was not the first severe robbery incident in the University area. Last August, Faculty of Civil Law student Michelle Louella Legaspi suffered from a serious head injury after thieves riding on a motorcycle dragged her along Lacson St. when they attempted to pull her bag.
Pestaño can identify the suspects who are still at large, police reports said. Marlene H. Elmenzo and Edsel Van D.T. Dura
