ONE of three men who held up a Manila-bound bus at dawn of June 6, 2005 along the provincial road in barangay Barangobong here that ended in a shoot-out and the killing of a baby girl was sentenced to reclusion perpetua by the Regional Trial Court after more than two years of trial.

Convicted in a 12-page decision handed down by RTC Judge Ulysses Raciles Butuyan of Branch 51 was Joel de la Pena, a native of Koronadal, Cotabato, who with two others, held up passengers of a Five Star Bus that just left its station in Poblacion, Tayug.

Also charged in the case for robbery homicide was Nino Bocal who, however, was able to escape. A third suspect, who was unidentified, was killed when two policemen in plainclothes, who were inside the bus and were bound for Manila, traded shots with the suspects who were armed with hand guns and bladed weapons.

Killed by an astray bullet presumably fired by either Bocal or the suspect who was slain in the shoot out was Zainab Jalel Mohammad who, with her mother Priscila Sebastian and an aunt, were among the passengers of the bus.

The two policemen in civilian clothes who were also bound for Manila and boarded the bus separately were identified as P02 Darwin Aquino of Central Police District in Quezon City, of barangay Trenchera, Tayug; and Inspector Roland Suitos, a member of the Alaminos City Police.

Aquino was seated at the rear-most part of the bus and Suitos on the left side, second to the back seat when the hold up happened.

Aquino for an opportunity and when he saw that the holdup men were busy collecting the wallets and personal belongings of the passengers, he stood up and shouted “Police”.

One of the suspects fired at him several times but missed. When he fired back with his 9mm. pistol, he hit one of the suspects and killed him. At this juncture, Bocal jumped out from the door of the speeding bus.

At the same time that Aquino was trading shots with one of the suspects, Suitos moved and subdued de la Pena.

De la Pena, who had jut been working at the Custodio Piggery Farm in Tayug for a week, denied he was with the holdup men, saying that one of the male passengers even declared he was not with the suspects.

But he failed to identify who that passenger was.

In his testimony, he however identified the holdup man who escaped and jumped from the speeding bus as Nino Bocal.

In sentencing de la Pena, Judge Butuyan said that the suspect neither fired a shot nor profited from the loot. But that he found no room to doubt that the accused “was a co-conspirator who did not fit the profile of an innocent man.” (PNA)