Yesterday my wife had an experience which she prefers to forget as soon as possible.
While I was waiting in the car (double parked near Farmers Market in Cubao) a little after 3 PM, I received a text message from her that she was at the police station #7 corner Edsa and P.Tuazon Ave.
I answered her text that I was going there right away. So I started the engine and go ….
What happened:
My wife was crossing Edsa using the footbridge to go to the Mercury drugstore there. Almost at her destination, but still on the footbridge, suddenly a man grabs her earrings, pulls on it, got only 1 and runs away as fast as he possibly could. My wife started screaming immediately and while the thief was running down a staircase two Police Officers (who noticed her screaming) were able to grab the thief. Both (my wife and the thief) were brought to the police station where the investigation took place.
When I got there at the station, I saw about a dozen policemen standing outside and also a few arrested men handcuffed together so they couldn’t run away. On one side of the building I noticed a part with thick steel bars. Behind those bars were already several men waiting for what was coming to them. There was a sign that stated that this was the male detention cell.
Inside the building, my wife give a statement of what happened to the investigator and a report was written. In the mean time the suspect was put behind the steel bars. While I was waiting outside on the premesis I saw that several of those detinees got visitors. They were probably wifes, girlfriensds or other relatives. They were bringing food and drinks to the imprisoned men, and have a chat with them.
At around 5 PM my wife has finished her statement and the Officers were ready with the paperwork so we could go home. On the way home she said that we had to go back around 8 PM that same night because we still had to go to a prosecutor to file a complaint against the suspect.
From Cubao, during rush hour it took us about 75 minutes to get home. We had dinner with our family at home and left the house again around 7:30 PM. While in the car going there, the police was sending a text already and asking if we were still coming in time.
At 8:15 PM we arrived at the police station again and it took only a few minutes before we could go to the Quezon-City city hall compound. At the compound is also the local judiciary.
The suspect was brought there with two police men in a police car, while we followed them in our own car and 1 police officer was going with us in our car to guide me where necessary.
The police officers (the two who arrested the thief, plus the investigator) brought us to a small area where a state prosecutor held office. After handing him the papers the prosecutor was shortly hearing the thief and my wife about what happened. He read the written statement and signed it.
Further he made a new statement and set bail at 100.000 pesos. The suspect will have to go to a trial later and will probably get 3 years imprisonment.
My wife will have to attend to that trial to testify in front of a judge. She will be notified of the date and time later.
While going to the city hall, my wife and the police officer who was with us were talking about the business my wife was going to when the event happened. She said that we didn’t have the medicins for her sister yet and that they were only available at that specific branch of Mercury Drugstore. The officer made contact to the drugstore and asked them to make a reservation for the needed drugs and that they would be picked up later that night. He promised my wife that he was going to guide us there to pick up the drugs.
So after city hall the officer guided us again to the crossing of Edsa and Aurora where the dugstore is and arranged that we could park there on the corner while picking up the drugs. On this specific corner there is absolutely NO paking allowed. But the traffic officer on duty was instructed that we could stay there while going to the drugstore.
It took only about 10 minutes to get the prescription of drugs. So we headed home after that.
According to the police officer who was in our car guiding us, I am a carefull driver! My wife told me that on our final way home that night. Now I have to take care that I’m not going to be as arrogant as most Filipino drivers…. 
Cubao is known for a lot of crime like this. Visitors to this area should be warned well to take necessary precautions not to be robbed , snatched, or become the victim of pickpocketing.
Some people might say that justice in the Philippines is not working like it should be. But with this experience I can only say that there is still justice in the Philippines.
Filipino time:
I hope they don’t do to you what they did to a filipino aquaintance of mine. He was held up by two guys with a gun. They took his wallet and cell phone. when they left he followed them home. (I’m not sure of the wisdom of that but he did)
He then went to the police and reported the crime. The police went to the house and arrested the two guys and recovered his property but did not find the gun.
The realtives of the two guys come down to the police station and basicly they are mad at him for pressing charges after he got his stuff back.
A couple of days later the relatives show up at his house still trying to talk him out of pressing charges. Get this the police gave them his address(and the gun they used has still not been found).
He stuck it out and pressed charges meantime the two guys are out on bail and robbed someone else with the gun the cops couldn’t find. So they still have the gun and they know where he lived. Fortunately just after that he moved. They didn’t show up for their hearing. (Big surprise)
Hey Jan,
Three years imprisonment? What would he have got in the Netherlands for that? Three weeks?
Well, for the police this was an open and shut case that didn’t require much detective work. The only thing they had to do after grabbing this miscreant was coming up with some ‘goodwill service’ towards you and your wife which they seem to have done to an extraordinary degree. It helped of course that your cradle was outside the Islas Pilipinas in a more fortunate region of the earth. However, this has all little to do with ‘justice’. More with PR.
It doesn’t take away the fact that the Filipino police seems to be pretty hopeless in solving crimes that require some serious investigation. Grabbing the unfortunates that commit petty crimes under their very noses is no great achievement. And throwing these into the slammer for long years will not do much for deterrence. Deterrence requires widespread knowledge that if you commit a crime you have got a good chance to be caught. At present there is widespread knowledge of exactly the opposite.
Tom,
It’s a little stupid to go after those people and follow them at their place.
Sometimes you just have to accept that you are being robbed. If there is no police around at that moment, you can report it at a police station, but there are too little possibilities for the police to do something.
Just be warned, DO not bring lots of money or expensive jewelry etc. with you.
Adrianus,
Thanks for visiting my site.
In Holland a snatcher would probably go to jail for a few weeks and after that set free on a two years probation.
Maybe you are right about the PR. I really do not know that.
It is a fact that there is too much corruption in the Philippines. And a person, especially a foreigner, should not go on places where one can expect being robbed. Also never bring a lot of money or wear expensive jewelry. A person should always be very observant in what is going on around him in the street.
That was the first question we all asked him why did he follow them if he knew they had a gun.
The second thing we all asked was knowing that there was an unaccounted for firearm why did the police give his home address to the family? What if they had come with the gun and shot him. Or the two guys when they got out. Maybe they did but he had moved by then. That is the really scary part of this story.