British ‘budol-budol’ victim gets free Banaue vacation

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – If you come to Banaue town, Ifugao province, this Holy Week and find an amiable Brit guy, be good to him. 

British engineer Damian Brian Gabriel Hughes, 36, just had a bloody “barmy” time in the country so far. He got robbed, apparently “budol-budol” style. 

Banaue police got a call in the midnight of Saturday, March 24, about a foreigner sleeping at the Ohayami bus terminal in Barangay Tam-an. 

Police approached Hughes, who looked dazed and disoriented. 

In their interview, they learned that Hughes was in Makati at a travel agency on Friday afternoon, preparing for his tour to Banaue, when a man and two women who were also in the agency’s office told him that they, too, were going to Banaue. 

He then accompanied his “new-found friends” to the bus terminal in Sampaloc, Manila, to buy bus tickets, and then returned to Makati to have lunch in a restaurant. 

That was the last thing he remembered. Hughes woke up in a taxi at about 9 pm Friday, and noticed that his 5SE iPhone, which he said was worth P29,000, was missing. His cash, which he estimated to be about P9,000, was also nowhere to be found. 

The tourist told the taxi driver to help him find his phone, but instead the driver just brought out his luggage and left him. 

Hughes went to the bus station and sought assistance from the security guards on duty. 

It turned out there were two female police officers at the Ohayami bus terminal in Sampaloc. They told him to report his situation at the police station. 

While there, Hughes was shown a CCTV footage and he was able to identify one of the women in the restaurant. 

The cops advised him to push through with his vacation in Banaue, which he did. 

So when the Banaue police found him and heard his story, they decided to shell out and billet him at a hotel, hoping it would help him gain his strength and wits. – Rappler.com