Cop charged over Makati bus bombing

MANILA, Philippines - A member of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) was charged with murder yesterday after he was positively identified by witnesses as the one who allegedly planted the bomb that exploded inside a bus in Makati City that killed five passengers last year.

Chief Superintendent Benito Estipona, director of the Southern Police District (SPD), said murder raps have been filed against Police Officer 2 Arnold Mayo before the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Mayo is now being held at the SAF headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

According to Estipona, the bus driver and conductor identified Mayo through his photograph as the man who boarded the Newman Goldliner bus with a backpack shortly before it exploded.

The witnesses said Mayo and another SAF member, Police Officer 3 Jose Torralba, boarded the bus along Baclaran before the bus blew up at the corner of EDSA and Ayala Avenue.

Estipona added that Mayo was caught in a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera prior to the explosion.

“His alibi was that he was in Mindanao when the bus explosion happened. But we now have evidence to show that he was in Makati at the time the bus exploded. We still have to question him further as to what group he belongs to and what was the motive behind the bus bombing,” Estipona told The Star.

The Newman Goldliner bus (TJX 710) was traversing EDSA in Buendia, Makati City on Jan. 25, 2011 when it exploded.

Among those killed were Torralba, PO2 Elizalde Bisaya, Crisanto Daguio and Riza Romualdo. Nine others, including Mayo, were wounded in the blast.

National Capital Region Police Office chief Director Alan Purisima said Mayo was placed under protective custody after SAF investigation showed that the Newman Goldliner bus bombing and the explosion at a welding shop in Taguig City, which occurred on the same day, both used an 81mm mortar.