ABS-CBN reporter, peace panel staffer robbed in Rome

ROME, Italy — Thieves preyed on a Filipino journalist and a staff member of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) at a hotel here on Wednesday evening.

The bags of Danny Buenafe of ABS-CBN and Edwin Espejo of OPAPP were stolen by a group of men at the lobby of Holiday Inn Rome-Eur Parco Dei Medici at around 6:30 p.m.

Both left their bags on a couch inside the lobby when the robbers came in and distracted the only person left watching them.

Stolen were valuables that included credits cards, a camera, a laptop and a passport.

The robbers immediately fled.

Buenafe and Espejo were in Rome for the third round of talks between the government and the National Democratic Front from Thursday to January 25.

Local authorities were still investigating the incident. CBB