PNP eyes link of EDSA hostage-takers to Makati cop slay

The robbers who staged a dramatic bus holdup and hostage-taking incident along EDSA Thursday may have been the same robbers who killed Makati City's deputy police chief a week ago. Police investigators said Friday they are looking into this possibility, and have subjected the three captured suspects' firearms to ballistics tests. "It is possible they had something to do with the killing of Superintendent Jovem Bocalbos. We've subjected their firearms to ballistics tests," Quezon City police director Senior Superintendent Magtanggol Gatdula said in Filipino during an interview on dzRH radio. Bocalbos, deputy police chief of Makati City, was shot dead after armed robbers held up passengers of his Asian utility vehicle in Quezon City last May 23. Gatdula noted that the gang that pulled off Thursday's holdup and hostage-taking appeared to show the same brazenness as those who held up Bocalbos' van. Earlier, Southern Police District (SPD) director Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales said they are not discounting the possibility hired assassins and not robbers killed Bocalbos. Rosales then said Bocalbos, was assigned earlier to the intelligence unit of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), had several "enemies" before he was killed. "I have received word that he had been under threat. He even has civilian security personnel around him," he said in an earlier interview. Four suspects in Bocalbos' slay were already arrested last May 24, with the gunman identified as Bernardino Peralta. They were collared during a police operation in San Roque 2 village in Bagong Pag-Asa, Quezon City. Bocalbos was sidelining as a passenger vehicle driver when five robbers held up his van at Litex Road along Commonwealth Avenue. He died due to a gunshot wound to the head. In last Thursday's incident, five people died after robbers briefly took hostage several bus passengers and shot it out with police in Quezon City. The police killed three suspected robbers and arrested three others, while the bus driver and another civilian were also killed in the incident. In a radio interview, Gatdula said that, "The robbers boarded the bus at Makati and declared a holdup past EDSA-Boni. When police in Muñoz in Quezon City blocked their path, they shot the driver and a passenger, then took three more passengers hostage and commandeered another vehicle to escape." Radio station dzEC reported said the arrested suspects were Ryan Ibarra, Jojo Basiyaan, and Ronnie Hernandez. Recovered from them were three cal-.45 pistols and a 9-mm. pistol. However, radio station dzBB reported that at least one of the robbers escaped. Gatdula said the incident took place past 9 a.m., when six suspects boarded the JMK bus (Body No. 23, plate TWH-291) near Guadalupe in Makati City. When the bus got past Boni Avenue in Mandaluyong City, the robbers declared the holdup and started divesting passengers of their valuables. However, one passenger was able to get off the bus at Cubao in Quezon City and alerted a police team stationed near the area. The Quezon City police in turn notified other police units in Metro Manila. A police team blocked the bus' path at the portion of Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) at the Muñoz district in Quezon City. Upon seeing the blockade, the robbers shot dead driver Daroboy Santos of Angat, Bulacan, and an unidentified male passenger. They then took three passengers hostage and commandeered a Mitsubishi Adventure (CSX-806) and headed for Valenzuela City, Gatdula said. "Their run in the Adventure ended at Lawang Bato because they were running on flat tires," Gatdula said. Undeterred, the suspects and their hostages ran to a row of houses nearby, but the police already stationed there managed to rescue the hostages. Four of the suspects scaled a wall and commandeered a dump truck. The suspects tried to shoot their way out but snipers in the area fired at them. Passengers said the robbers had a grenade that turned out to be a dud. "There were four or five of them. They had a grenade. They boarded the bus at the flyover near Guadalupe in Makati City then declared a holdup. Then there was a police chase," passenger Celia Mamaril told dzBB. GMA News' Saksi said three of the robbers were killed after alighting from the AUV. Northern Police District (NPD) head Chief Supt. Pedro Tango said they had "taken into custody" four persons, but said one of them claimed to be one of the hostaged passengers. In a separate interview on dzBB, Tango said that if the claim of the "hostage" were true, they will have to track down the remaining fifth suspect. Mamaril said the bus, which plies the Malanday-Makati route, came from Makati City and was heading north along Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA). Quezon City police who responded to the incident fired at the bus' tires to immobilize it. The bus sustained several bullet holes. - GMANews.TV