7 Edsa bus robbers nabbed; passengers saw their getaway
Seven men on a bus were arrested at a police checkpoint right after they allegedly held up another bus on Edsa in Quezon City Monday night.
After pulling off a heist on a northbound Nicolas Albert bus, the robbery suspects boarded another from the same firm, not knowing that the passengers they had victimized saw where they transferred.
Members of the Quezon City Police District’s Masambong police station, by then already alerted to the robbery, boarded the second bus when it stopped at a checkpoint near a police precinct in Sitio San Roque on Edsa around 10:30 p.m.
The officers were actually not sure if it was the bus they were looking for, but its driver and conductor had the “presence of mind” to tell the lawmen that a group of seven men had just boarded the vehicle, according to QCPD director Senior Supt. Richard Albano.
Arrested were Jerry Lopez, 42; Arsenio Dapat, 34; Nelson Albia, 33; Raymond Pardo, 29, Bernabe Aceo, 32; Randy Matas, 28 and Jeffrey Almonte, 19, all Quezon City residents.
Recovered from the suspects were four fan knives and their loot—P15,000 in cash, six mobile phones, a digital camera and four wrist watches—from passengers Ramvel Bueza, Robert Aranzado, Bonijun Numangiao and Nhordick Basilan.
Albano on Tuesday commended bus driver Ismael Sambuto and his conductor Ronald Jamawan “for their presence of mind in such a situation. They were able to alert our policemen to the presence of the robbers aboard their bus.”
QCPD Masambong station commander Supt. Pedro Sanchez said the suspects boarded the first Nicolas Albert bus on Edsa near Centris Mall and declared a holdup. They later got off with their loot near Manila Seedling Bank.
The suspects ordered the driver to go straight to SM North Edsa mall, but he drove instead toward the Kilyawan police precinct, where the passengers told officers that they last saw the robbers boarding another Nicolas Albert bus.
A checkpoint was immediately set up until the second bus described by the victims was spotted.
Two of the suspects, Matas and Aceo, were earlier arrested also for a bus robbery in July 2005 but both were able to post bail, according to QCPD records.
