HERO’S STORY: Soldier fights off robbers with rusty rifle and 6 bullets
By Frances Mangosing
INQUIRER.net


Master Sergeant Eleno Leopoldo. PHILIPPINE ARMY

MANILA, Philippines – For Master Sergeant Eleno Leopoldo, 26 years in the Philippine Army has taught him, more than anything else, to respond to the call of duty, under any circumstance.

This was put to the test one afternoon in May when on his way home from his ricefield in Cortes, Surigao del Sur, he heard people shouting, Leopoldo said in an interview with INQUIRER.net Friday.

Leopoldo, 50, said that as soon as he got home to get his rusty and loaded Armscor Squibman Caliber 22 rifle, he heard gunfire. Someone needs help, he said.

A resident of Burgos village for at least two decades, Leopoldo said crime was almost nil in this rural community.

That afternoon, however, Leopoldo said that a businessman-neighbor was robbed by four armed men some 300 meters away. To his surprise as he came closer to the area, the armed men were trying to take the motorcycle of his friend, Tomas Corales.

The robbers hit Corales with a pistol, and shot his son Vincent on both thighs, Leopoldo said.

Leopoldo said he ducked when the robbers saw him armed with a rifle.

He said the robbers retreated, firing at him who only had six bullets loaded in his gun.

The need to hit his target accurately became a pressing one, he said. Marking his sights on the center mass of one of the robbers, he said he fired his first shot from a distance of 50 meters, hitting his target in the abdomen and causing his death. The suspect, he found out later, turned out to be a cop.


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