Snatcher Stabs Barangay Tanod

Feb.1,2010
Snatcher Stabs Barangay Tanod
By Quirico M.. Gorpido,Jr.

Maasin City, Southern Leyte-A Barangay Tanod who pursued a running snatcher after victimizing a college student in brgy. Zone 3, Sogod town, during the recent Tuesday evening at about 6:00p.m. was stabbed by the latter when the former passed by the suspect’s position who was hiding nearby.
The victim was identified as Lauberto Ranario Lasaga, 32 years old, married and a resident of brgy Zone 3.He was on duty when the stabbing happened.
In an interview with LSDE Alma Monteciano-Lasaga, 30 years old, wife of the victim, disclosed that the suspect after hitting her husband on the abdomen had ran away.
She said her pursuing husband had not notice that the suspect hid somewhere in the area where residential houses were crowding. “It was not easy to see the next corner under dark if somebody was hiding”, she said.
Her husband after he was stabbed, she said, did not shout for help but had walked alone until she saw him and brought him to the Sogod District Hospital.
However, the doctor on duty told her to proceed to the provincial hospital here because at that time, according the doctor, the anesthesiologist was in Cebu City.
A service ambulance had brought them to the provincial hospital where the victim was examined in the Emergency Room by physician surgeon Dr, Reynaldo Tan who operated on the victim’s abdomen.
She said she was informed by the surgeon that both her husband’s large and small intestines were wounded.

Meeting at Barangay Hall
Earlier, prior to the incident, the victim accompanied by his wife and son went to the barangay hall to attend a meeting. Before the meeting could start his wife proceeded to the public market to buy some fish. After buying fish, she said, she went to the nearby store to buy cooking oil to fry the fishes. While her husband went to the store to buy a toy for his 7-year-old son Louie John, grade 2 pupil who requested it from his father.
She was then urged by her husband to go ahead and cook food so that their 6-year-old pre-schooler daughter Leanne who has had a fever could eat.
At the same time, her husband had followed her to their house with his son, she said, and had to go back t o the barangay hall for the scheduled meeting among the Barangay Tanods (barrio guards).
Nevertheless, before the victim could reach their residence, his wife said, unidentified female college student of the Southern Leyte State University (SLSU) shouted for help after her wallet was snatched by an unidentified man.
Responding to the victim’s call the Barangay Tanod-victim pursued the fleeing snatcher who entered by the narrow alleys where he hid somewhere.
As her husband narrated to her the incident, she said, he happened to pass by a nook where the suspect was hiding and he was stabbed on his stomach with a knife and ranaway in haste. She said her husband told her he was not familiar with the snatcher’s facial feature and bearing. He (the victim) believed, she said, that the snatcher is not from their place.

Sleeping Victim
During the interview the victim was sleeping. A medicinal oxygen’s hose was inserted to his nose to support his breathing. A plastic bottle of dextrose was hanging over him. A needle at the end of the dextrose’s hose penetrated into a visible vein, where 4 kinds of injectable vials were injected by a few minutes of interval as per the doctor’s instruction. “But for injectable antibiotic”, a male nurse who injected the victim said, “it would be from 2 to 3 hours interval for a newly-operated patient, depending upon the patient’s condition and the doctor’s instruction”.
The interviewee further said that she could not make sure how many days do they have to stay at the hospital, since the injuries inflicted on her husband were internal. The victim’s wife was also hopeful that the snatcher-suspect will have a remorse of his conscience so that he will voluntarily surrender to the police to give justice to her husband.(Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)