Briton, 6 others wounded in holdup

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — Seven people, including a British national, were wounded when a policeman traded shots with five holdup men inside an air-conditioned passenger bus along the national highway in Dinalupihan, Bataan before dawn yesterday.

In a report, Senior Superintendent Hernando Zafra, Bataan police director, identified six of the wounded as Briton Paul Howard, 58; Sarah Jane Sagun, 34; bus conductor Florencio Chavez, 43; Noel Montemayor, 32; seaman John Francis Dolera, 40; and Senior Inspector Adriano Adsuara, 53, assigned to the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.

Zafra said one of the holdup men was also wounded and his cohorts took him as they fled in a car.

He said the holdup men boarded the Victory Liner bus with license plate CWX-619 and driven by one Mario Quijano in the City of San Fernando and announced the heist when they reached Barangay Saguing in Dinalupihan town. 

The holdup men, brandishing two pistols (a caliber .45 and a caliber 9-mm), a caliber .38 revolver and a fan knife, then proceeded to divest the 45 passengers of their cash and valuables. But Dolera resisted and was shot.

Seeing Dolera shot, Adsuara pulled out his gun and shot one of the holdup men, but one of the latter’s cohorts stabbed him in the left shoulder.

The holdup men then escaped toward Olongapo City, bringing with them their wounded cohort, the police said. — With Raffy Viray