Stick 'em ups rob Ceres bus
Police are hot on the trail of five robbers who victimized passengers of a packed bus Sunday afternoon in Batad town.
Gov. Niel Tupas said yesterday that he has ordered provincial director, Sr. Supt. Melvin Mongcal to arrest and prosecute the robbers.
"If we let them go, crimes like this would happen again. That's why we have to arrest them," he said.
Ceres bus 6574 was on its way to the City from Estancia town when the incident happened at around 5:30 pm.
Posing as passengers, two of the three robbers were already in the bus, having boarded it in Estancia.
Their companions, who were wearing bonnets, flagged the bus at Brgy. Hamun in Batad, and immediately declared the hold up. Two robbers secured the conductor, identified only as a certain Mr. Amarao, while the others divested the passengers of their valuables.
The robbers were armed with .45 caliber handguns and two long firearms of unknown caliber. They alighted from the bus about a kilometer from where they boarded and fled towards an unknown direction.
The robbers were able to take P30,000 in cash, mobile phones and other valuables.
Tupas said this is the first robbery to happen in the fifth district in a long time.
It is possible that those behind are members of an organized group because they had guns, the governor said. It is also likely that the robbers come from the towns in the fifth district.