Three armed men enter Mandaue billiard hall, frisk ‘players,’ order them to strip

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Three armed men claiming to be “police officers in civilian clothes” entered a billiard hall in Sitio Aroma in Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City on July 27, frisked the 11 men at the billiard hall and then ordered them to strip down to their underwear.

The 11 men at the billiard hall obeyed the armed men’s orders as they feared that if they would not comply something bad might happen to them, said Dolores Dedomo, United Residents of Sitio Aroma president, in a text message to CDN Digital.

Dedomo said that after all the 11 men stripped down to their underwear, the armed men then left the billiard hall.

The men at the billiard hall also told Dedomo that while they were being bodily frisked before they were ordered to strip down, the armed men asked them if they were members of the Kabataan partylist.

Dedomo said the billiard hall incident happened at past 11 p.m. on Saturday, July 27.

Then three hours later or at past 1 a.m. of July 28, Dedomo said that the armed men returned and loitered in the area for nearly an hour.

She also said that an hour earlier from the billiard hall incident, armed men, whom claimed to be police officers wearing civilian clothes, allegedly entered a rented room and arrested three men engaged in Tong-its and hantak or a toss coin game.

Dedomo said the men that were arrested were only gambling for fun.

The three men were detained at the Subangdaku police precinct detention cell.

CDN Digital called the police station and police officers there confirmed that they arrested three men at the sitio for gambling, but they said they did not know anything about the billiard frisking and stripping down incident./dbs