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BACOLOD CITY — A small-scale miner was shot dead and was robbed of gold and cash by three unidentified men in barangay Nabulao, Sipalay City, Negros Occidental.
Chief Insp. Arnel Arpon, Sipalay police chief, said the victim, Samson Bersamen, 51, sustained three gunshot wounds in the back, head and chest.
Samson was divested of 15 grams of gold he had recovered from an open mining pit and P2,000 in cash after he was shot on Tuesday, Arpon said.
Police investigations showed that Bersamen and his live-in partner, Elizabeth Largano, were mining an open pit in Nabulao village, when three bonnet-wearing men, armed with guns, suddenly appeared.
One of the assailants blindfolded Largano while the two others declared a hold-up and shot Bersamen three times. The three then fled with their loot.
Largano, who was unharmed, was able to remove her blindfold but lost consciousness upon seeing Bersamen bathed in his own blood, Arpon said.
Arpon said the killing might have been triggered by the conflict among small-scale miners engaged in the open pit mining business in Nabulao.
Bersamen, who hailed from Surigao, had been mining gold from an open pit at Skid 8 in Nabulao since 2001, Arpon said. INQUIRER
