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CEBU CITY, Philippines - It was close to midnight when 20-year-old Ruby Jade Ruba was texting on her cellphone as she waited on a near-empty street in barangay Capitol Site, Cebu City.
The nursing student stood outside a friend’s apartment on Governor Roa Street, where she was hoping to borrow the adaptor for a computer laptop. The apartment, like the street, was dark and unlighted as she tried to text her friend. The road is not in the route of police patrols.
She was easy prey.
Two men on a red motorcycle arrived and a classic roadside holdup unfolded.
One man got off the back seat and aimed a gun at her.
She tried to move away. A single shot of a .38 caliber revolver pierced her wrist and chest. Her cellphone was grabbed.
Badly wounded, Ruba was still able to run off a few meters before falling to the ground.
The dreams of a young woman to graduate as a nurse and work abroad ended with the theft of a P5,000 Nokia cellphone.
Ruby Jade was a graduating student of the Cebu Doctor’s University, the only daughter of a Coast Guard officer whose family is based in Macrohan, Southern Leyte.
“The city isn’t safe especially if you go around at night,” said a brokenhearted Chief Petty Officer Vicente Ruba at the funeral home where Ruby Jade’s remains were taken.
“Drug users are dangerous. We have to be vigilant.”
The father, who is assigned at the Cebu Coast Guard district, urged the Cebu City government to light up dark areas of the city where robbers have the upperhand.
Ruba said he inspected the crime scene himself and found out the area is unlighted.
He said the police should also conduct regular roving patrols in dark parts of the city.
“Di na gyud ta safe dinhi sa siyudad ilabi na nga mosuroy sa gabii. Kani sab ning mga tawo, wa na sa ilang kaugalingon kay nag-drugs. Magbantay gyud ta dinhi,” he said.
After he spoke with CDN at the St. Peter Funeral Homes, Ruba wept and accepted the embrace of a friend who held on to him for comfort.
Ruby Jade’s two brothers were at the wake, which was attended by several of her schoolmates in CDH.
Ritchie, her younger brother, said he couldn’t believe at first the circumstances of Ruby Jade’s death because the nursing student, he said, had no nightlife, she just concentrates on her studies.
Ruba’s father arrived yesterday from Leyte and went to the police homicide division to press for action on the death of the youngest of his three children.
Based on initial witness, accounts, the gunman was of medium build and looked like a drug addict.
The street, formerly called Kamuning Street, is not one of the routes of the police beat patrol. The area is under the coverage of the Fuente police station.
Police didn’t focus in the area before because it had no history of robberies there, said Senior Supt. Patrocinio Comendador Jr., Cebu City police chief.
But with last night’s killing, he said would review the beat patrol deployment.
Two hours after the shooting, two other robbers held up a Dutch national in the corner of Aboitiz and F. Manalo Streets in barangay Camputhaw, still under the Fuente police station.
Ruby Jade was boarding in B. Rodriguez Street. She and her friend Dia Rudas had gone to Governor Roa Street to pick up a laptop adaptor from a friend living there.
Since the apartment was already closed, they went back to the street and Ruba started to contact the friend by text to inform her they had arrived.
Her friend Rudas was able to run off when the armed robber accosted them.
A security guard, Edwin Edulantes, rushed the wounded Ruby Jade to the hospital.
No arrests were made although the police picked up some police characters for possible identification.
Inspector Mario Monilar, chief of the homicide section, said the victim’s father visited his office and pressed for a speedy solution of the case.
Monilar urged the public to report to the police any information that could help trace the holduppers. Citizens can send text messages to Monilar’s cellular phone (0915 3640974). He promised that the information could be treated confidentially.
