Bus shooting suspect caught after bragging about crime

MANILA, Philippines - A man was tagged in the killing of a bus conductor earlier this month after he bragged to his friends about the crime, Quezon City Police District director Senior Superintendent Richard Albano said yesterday.

Michael Cudiamat, alias Tisoy, was arrested at MR Compound in Barangay Commonwealth Thursday night. Police officers seized a .45 caliber pistol tucked in Cudiamat’s waistband.

Cudiamat was linked to the shooting of Mayamy Bus conductor Ronnel Monter on Jan. 4 along Commonwealth Avenue, Albano said, adding that there were about five suspects in the killing.

“Our informant was a friend of the suspect’s who said the suspect had bragged about the killing during a recent conversation within their circle,” QCPD Station 6 commander Superintendent Ramon Pranada told The STAR.

“He (Cudiamat) had told his friends that he had shot a bus conductor,” Pranada said in an interview.

On the day of the killing, the suspects, all of them reportedly drunk, boarded the bus but refused to pay their fare as they were about to get off.

The bus driver told police he saw one of the men, allegedly Cudiamat, shoot Monter during an argument.

Pranada said the driver was the one who provided the police with descriptions that helped them come up with a sketch of one of the suspects.

“(Based on the sketch) we already had a hint that it was him (Cudiamat) and our informant was the one who confirmed it,” Pranada said, citing a week of surveillance leading to the arrest.

QCPD deputy director for operations Senior Superintendent Neri Ilagan said the suspect would not only be charged for the killing but also for violating the election gun ban.