Waterfront station policemen arrested three suspected robbers who held up three passengers of a jeepney along M. J. Cuenco Avenue at barangay Tejero Thursday evening.
The suspects are Jimrex Bayron, 22, Rinelo Bayron, 22 and Melvin Almirante, 18, and all of them are residents of sitio Villagonzalo Uno of Tejero.
The police account of the incident stated that the three had boarded a Mandaue City-bound jeepney (Route 21A) and, upon reaching the old site of the National Statistics Office, they drew their knives and held up three passengers.
The three victims were Mandaue City residents, a 17-year-old female student, Jaycel Villarta, 20, also a university student, and Hanzel Boltron, 40, of barangay Centro, Mandaue City.
An alert citizen however saw what was happening inside the jeepney and immediately called the police for assistance.
The suspects got the victims’ cellular phones and their money totaling P5,000 and quickly alighted from the jeepney but it came just in time the responding Mobile Patrol Group’s car, with SPO1 Serafin Asingjo and PO2 Leonard Dinsay on board, arrived.
A brief chase ensued and the policemen finally cornered and arrested the suspects near Villagonzalo Uno. Recovered from the suspects were the stolen items and their knives. — Edwin Ian Melecio/RAE