QC cops arrest more bus robbers

In a lightning raid, members of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) arrested four members of a notorious robbery gang shortly after they allegedly victimized a passenger bus along North EDSA in Quezon City yesterday.

The arrest was prompted by a complaint filed by a passenger of the Sampaguita Bus Liner immediately after it was held up at around 1:45 a.m.

Superintendent Carlito Feliciano, chief of Masambong Police Station 2, identified the suspects as Rebred Labial alias Reb, 21; Mark Jerome Esperad, 13; Reynan Roxas, 23; and gang leader Michael Espinosa alias Jojo, 31.

The suspects are residents of the clusters of shanties in San Roque 2 in Barangay Pag-asa, Quezon City.

Prior to the bus robbery, police records indicated that the arrested suspects were responsible for robbing six taxi drivers and their passengers in North EDSA in Quezon City.

The suspects were arrested after Myra Vergara, 22, filed a complaint at the police station, claiming she was robbed of cash and several valuable items by the same group of arrested suspects while she was aboard a bus bound for Monumento in Caloocan City Monday night.

Based on an informant’s tip, the law enforcers raided a shantytown in San Roque 2. The informant positively identified the suspects as members of a robbery gang operating on EDSA.

Recovered from the suspects were several bladed weapons. The suspects surrendered peacefully to the authorities.

Three of the suspects were picked up while playing billiards, while Espinosa was caught napping inside a shack.

The four suspects are detained at the at the Masambong police station while robbery charges are being filed against them at the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office.

The arrests were made as part of the QCPD’s intensified campaign against armed robbery gangs.

QCPD chief Senior Superintendent Magtanggol Gatdula initiated the campaign immediately after Makati Police District deputy chief Superintendent Joven Bocalbos was killed by armed robbers last May 23.

So far, four suspects have been arrested in connection with the Bocalbos slaying.

Gatdula said he is still awaiting the crime lab ballistic examination results on the four firearms recovered from a group of robbers who held up a passenger bus along Balintawak last Thursday.

Gatdula wanted to know whether any of the guns was the one used to kill Bocalbos, who was moonlighting as a driver of a passenger van along Commonwealth Avenue during his off-duty hours.