Hepolito Lauza Camor and Fernando Almario, once laborers at the Pasil fish port, were positively identified by the victims Alberto Cabucos and Bethlehem Gacayan as the men who held them up on the night of July 7, 2003.
Regional Trial Court judge Generosa Labra refused to believe the alibi of Camor and Almario, who claimed they "were inside a lodge together with their wives" at the time of the robbery.
The accused even failed to identify the lodge and present proof, such as a receipt, that they actually checked in that lodge.
The victims insisted in court that they did not forget the face of Camor, who held a gun at them, and that of Almario, who divested them of their belongings.
"In the case at bar, there was no physical impossibility for the accused to have been at the place of the commission of the crime and to have actually committed it since the lodge where the accused claimed they were at the time was not far from the scene," Labra said in her ruling.
Labra decided that the victims' testimonies were more credible since the scene of the crime was well lit enough for them to recognize and remember the faces of the robbers.
Pahina Central tanods Benjamin Alipar Jr. and Julie Delfin arrested Camor and Almario at Leon Kilat Street during a hot pursuit operation shortly after the robbery. - Rene U. Borromeo