3 Pangasinan cops convicted for robbery-slay

SAN CARLOS CITY – Three policemen, one of them a superintendent and former municipal police chief, were meted life jail terms for robbery with double homicide and attempted homicide.

Judge Anthony Sison of the Regional Trial Court Branch 57 here also ordered Superintendent Artemio Lamsen, former police chief of Malasiqui, Pangasinan; P01 Anthony Abulencia; and SPO1 Alfredo Ramos, who was assigned at the Traffic Management Group in Southern Tagalog, to pay the families of their victims a total of P5,210,820.10 in damages and to return P2,707,400.77 which they had carted away to Equitable Bank.

The fatalities were Fernando Sy, then manager of the Equitable Bank branch here, and his driver, Arturo Mariado, who were robbed and shot dead on Feb. 19, 2001 in Barangay Coliling after collecting money from three rural banks.

But Lamsen, in an interview with reporters inside his cell at the provincial jail in Lingayen yesterday, claimed that they were victims of injustice.

“Now I believe that someone could be convicted for a sin he did not really commit. It happened to me,” he said sobbing.

Before his conviction Wednesday, Lamsen had packed his clothes and even gave his other belongings to a cellmate, believing that he would be finally acquitted. But it did not happen.

“I am the police chief of Malasiqui, I am a colonel. I was assigned in my hometown. I was about to retire in two years when it happened. Do you think I can afford to make such an illegal activity in a thickly populated area in broad daylight in a place where people know me?” he asked.

He said he was not also suffering from financial problems, thus there was no need for him to commit such a crime.

“It’s embarrassing to my family. I thought truth would prevail. I couldn’t accept it,” he said.

On that fateful day, Lamsen claimed that he was with Abulencia to attend a court hearing here.

He said they rode in Abulencia’s car and while on their way back to the police station, they heard gunshots some 300 meters away from where they were.

Abulencia said he told Lamsen that he would maneuver the car to check what happened, to which the latter agreed.

However, some witnesses pointed to them as the suspects, together with Ramos who was then riding a different vehicle.

Sy was then with Mariado and the bank security guard who survived the attack.

Lamsen and Abulencia said they would definitely appeal the case.