Witnesses tag suspect in UP scholar’s slay

Two sets of witnesses positively identified yesterday a holdup suspect as the gunman in the slaying of a University of the Philippines scholar inside a passenger bus two weeks ago and a businessman inside a passenger jeepney last year.

Suspect Richard Marzo, 33, a Bahala na Gang member, was arrested by the "Night Hawk" squad of the Western Police District’s homicide section, led by Chief Inspector Alex Yanquiling, in a raid along the railroad tracks on Mindanao Extension, Sampaloc, Manila last Saturday.

From a police lineup, the conductor of a G-Liner bus positively identified Marzo as the person who shot Mary Joyce Latao during a heist involving at least three men along Magsaysay Boulevard in Sta. Mesa, Manila last Feb. 15.

Latao, a third-year pharmacy student of UP Manila, died from two gunshot wounds in the face after she was shot for refusing to hand over her cellular phone.

Elvie Latao, 40, an overseas worker based in Taiwan, had just recently identified her 19-year-old daughter at the morgue of the Floresco Funeral Parlor. The cadaver had been in the morgue for 10 days as she remained unidentified following the bus shooting.

Yanquiling said Marzo’s two companions, identified only as alias "Bravo" and "Boy Mata," are now being hunted by the Night Hawk squad, composed of SPO4 Maying de la Cruz and SPOs2 Rodel Reglos, Mar Tabora and Mel Jaralla.

In the same police lineup, Marzo was also tagged by a barangay kagawad as the person who shot 56-year-old Danilo Liwanag during a robbery holdup along España on March 10, 2003.

The witness told police he vividly recalls the physical and facial features of Marzo since the shooting took place only just a few feet away from where he stood. The victim was about to board a passenger jeepney on his way to the Luneta Park, where he jogs.

Gonzales also showed a cartographic sketch of the suspect prepared by the National Bureau of Investigation. Marzo matched the sketch, police said.

According to Yanquiling, Marzo was released from the Manila City Jail for robbery charges last December.

Yanquiling lauded the assistance of barangay chairmen in providing the names, descriptions and locations of known robbers in their areas in the solution of the twin rob slays.

Charges of two counts of robbery with homicide are now being readied against the suspect.

3 more arrested

Three men, all former employees of bus companies, were apprehended by operatives of the Makati City police station last Sunday evening after they robbed nine passengers of an aircon bus.

Senior Police Officer 4 Ricardo Reyes, of the Makati City police-Special Operations Group identified the suspects as Alfred Baluyot, 51, of Baesa, Quezon City, Leopoldo Mendoza, 21, of Maligaya Village, Meycauayan, Bulacan, and Nadie Gonzales, 31, also of Maligaya Village.

Baluyo formerly worked for the King of Kings bus firm as a driver while Mendoza was a conductor for the same company. Gonzales, on the other hand was a former bus inspector for Johannes Bus Transit. The suspects were presented to Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay yesterday.

Police recovered from the suspects a caliber .38 caliber revolver, five cellular phones and cash.

Initial investigation showed that at around 10:40 p.m. of Feb. 29, the suspects declared a heist while on board a JMK Transit aircon bus plying the Moñumento-Ayala route. They were about to board a taxi cab when Mendoza and Baluyot were apprehended.

Gonzales was arrested in a follow-up operation. – With Evelyn Macairan