Riding in a bus with robbers

For a terrifying one-and-a-half hours early yesterday afternoon, I was one of 19 passengers on board an air-conditioned Philippine Rabbit bus held up by three middle-aged men armed with a grenade and caliber .45 automatics.

During the protracted ordeal, one of the robbers even poked his gun at my neck as he rummaged through my bag looking for my cell phone which, I presumed, he must have noticed me using shortly before the bus left the San Fernando City intersection in Pampanga bound for Manila.

The robber was seated at the back of the bus. One of his companions was seated behind the driver; the third sat in the middle part of the bus.

All throughout the trip, the robbers were telling us passengers to "just relax and nobody will be hurt" although their leader kept threatening to let go of the grenade and "kill us all."

The bus, driven by Leo Tropico, had just exited from San Fernando, Pampanga when the three men stood up and announced a hold-up, pointing their guns at us shocked passengers roused from sleep by the sudden noise and commotion.

After taking conductor Emmanuel Barto’s bus fare collection and the passengers’ valuables like cellphones and wallets, we thought the robbers would immediately alight even if it was in the middle of the busy North Luzon expressway.

But to our surprise, and fear, the group told Tropico to drive uninterrupted for the whole stretch of the tollway! They obviously were not finished yet, ordering all curtains rolled down so the commotion would go unnoticed from outside. From there, we were divested, one by one, of all our remaining valuables as they scoured through our bags and packages, taking with them my wallet, wedding ring, Swiss knife, Maglite, house keys, coin purse, and a Nokia 6610 phone (which I tried to hide on the side of my seat but unfortunately fell to the floor when I was ordered to stand for frisking).

According to Philppine Rabbit Bus dispatcher Antonio Miranda, about P100,000 worth of valuables were taken by the three men, believed to be part of a gang of robbers victimizing airconditioned provincial buses plying the Northern Luzon route.

He said the group would strike buses mostly headed for Manila at any given time of day or night, although yesterday’s incident was the first "in a long while" for their company.

In that span of time, every passenger was glued to his or her seat, not making any unnecessary motion to avoid getting the ire of the group’s leader, the grenade-wielding man, in his early 40s, of medium built, dark complexioned and with a Southern accent.

We only heaved a sigh of relief, notwithstanding our misfortune, when the group got off at 11th Avenue and A. Bonifacio in Caloocan City without any passenger getting seriously hurt or traumatized.

The armed robbery, however, was reported about five minutes later at the La Loma police station several blocks away and was told by police investigators to refer the case to the San Fernando police since they had jurisdiction of the crime.

Miranda said he himself was confused on whether the bus company and the affected passengers would still need to file the case in Pampanga since the holdup was committed while in transit.