‘Valid defense’ gets bus blast suspect acquitted

A special Action Force (SAF) policeman accused of planting a bomb in a passenger bus which killed five people and wounded 15 others in 2011 was acquitted on Thursday after the court ruled that it was impossible for him to have been at the scene of the crime.

Judge Carlito Calpatura of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 145 also said in his 22-page decision that the evidence against PO2 Arnold Mayo “was  weak and [betrayed] lack of correctness on the question of whether or not the accused [was] the author of the crime.”

Calpatura added: “There was no proof beyond doubt as to the participation of the accused in the commission of the acts, coupled by the valid defense of alibi.”

Mayo had said that he was in Basilan province for a SAF assignment on the day of the bombing. This was confirmed by a fellow SAF member, PO2 Aristeo dela Peña, who testified that he was with the suspect inside their barracks on that day.

“The court is convinced that it is highly improbable, if not impossible, for the accused to be physically present at the scene of the crime,” the court said.

Mayo, a member of the Philippine National Police’s SAF, was charged with multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder in connection with the bombing of a Newman Gold Liner bus on Jan. 25, 2011. The incident happened around 2 p.m. on the northbound lane of Edsa near the corner of Gil Puyat Avenue in Makati City.

Mayo was arrested after he was injured in another explosion at a junk shop in Lower Bicutan, Taguig City which happened exactly a year after the bus bombing. The blast was caused by an 81-millimeter mortar,  the same explosive device used in the bus bombing, which he and two other SAF members—PO2 Elizalde Bisaya and PO3 Jose Torralba—had taken to the shop to be examined.

Bisaya and Torralba were killed along with two civilians. After the incident, Mayo was named the lone respondent in the case filed by Newman Gold Liner. According to investigators, the SAF policeman who was trained to handle explosives conspired with Torralba to plant the bomb.

Mayo was also identified by bus conductor Michael Jaralve as one of the two men who got on the bus with a black backpack and then alighted just before the explosion.

The court, however, said that Jaralve’s sworn statement “was silent as to the facial description of the suspects,” adding that the police may have “suggested and implanted” in his mind that Mayo was one of the suspects.

“This court finds that the witness’ identification of the accused is of doubtful value,” it said.