CABANATUAN CITY – A passenger bus owned by a Pangasinan businessman was set on fire on Thursday night by eight heavily armed men, who identified themselves as members of the National Bureau of Investigation.
The suspects stormed a bus compound in Barangay (village) H. Concepcion at 7 p.m., bearing rifles.
They confiscated a security guard’s shotgun and two-way radio equipment, and then torched the bus (bearing plate numbers PWZ-993), which they drenched with gasoline.
“We were caught unawares. They identified themselves as NBI members. They first took the guard, and then required the compounds’ occupants to lie down on the floor,” said Jeffrey Cachero, 33, the compound’s caretaker.
The gunmen ordered two women and a group of children to stay inside the bunkhouse and forbade them from “using any mobile telephone device or they would be killed,” Cachero said.
The attack took 15 minutes. The Cabanatuan City police station deployed a team there at about 7:20 p.m. but the armed men had fled.
Police and fire investigators recovered bottles filled with gasoline beneath other buses in the compound. CDG
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