45 bus passengers held up

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — Five armed men robbed 45 passengers and two personnel of a Manila-bound Baliwag airconditioned bus of at least P200,000 in cash and valuables here last Friday, police said.

Chief Inspector Teodoro Santos, provincial intelligence officer and concurrently this town’s police chief, said the robbery-holdup took place at about 11:30 p.m. along the national highway from Bagabag town to this capital town.

Santos said the armed men announced the holdup while the bus was cruising the 10-kilometer stretch from the Bagabag junction to this capital town, some 60 kilometers from the Baliwag Bus terminal in Santiago City (Isabela) where they, posing as passengers, boarded the bus.

Officer-on-case SPO4 Anselmo Dulin said the holdupmen, armed with a shotgun, a caliber .45 pistol and three caliber .38 revolvers, disembarked in Barangay Luyang here.

Dulin said the robbers took off with cash, cellular phones, jewelry, ATM and credit cards and important documents of the passengers. — Charlie Lagasca