Teen rob suspect shot dead in jeepney heist

MANILA, Philippines –  An 18-year-old robbery suspect was shot dead and three of his four companions were arrested after they reportedly robbed the passengers of a public utility jeepney in Malate, Manila yesterday morning.

Marvin Bagunas, 18, of Guadalupe, Makati City, was declared dead on arrival at the Ospital ng Maynila.

Chief Inspector Edgar Reyes who heads the Mobile Patrol Unit of the Manila Police District identified the arrested suspects as Asis John Braga, 18; Marco Omlang, 19; and Daniel Lesaca, 22, all of Makati City. The fifth suspect, a 16-year-old minor, managed to elude arrest and is the subject of a police manhunt, Reyes added.

Reyes said Police Officer 2 Ulysses San Diego and PO1 Rodolfo Ocampo were attending to a minor traffic accident at the corner of Mabini and P. Ocampo streets in Malate when Rolando Hugo, 50, driver of a passenger jeepney that passed by, informed them through sign language of an ongoing robbery in his vehicle.

As the two lawmen approached, the suspects alighted from the jeepney and scampered in different directions.

San Diego was about to collar Bagunas when the suspect tried to attack him with a knife. The teenager missed, and San Diego shot him.

Ocampo, bystanders and a hotel guard who joined in the chase arrested the other three suspects.

The three arrested suspect denied robbing Hugo’s passengers, saying Bagunas did not even own a knife and the driver forbade them from riding in his jeepney because they smell. They added that they fled when the policemen approached because they did not wish to be brought to the social welfare detention center.

Reyes, however, said the group fits the description of the robbers in several jeepney robberies in the Malate area.