Police nab driver of getaway vehicle in bus robbery

MANILA, Philippines – A tricycle driver was arrested after he and his vehicle were linked to an early-morning bus robbery on Osmeña Highway in San Andres Bukid, Manila.

Police arrested 29-year-old Rodren Cena while he was inside his own tricycle on Radium Street, San Andres Bukid. The arrest was made an hour after a Manila-bound Green Star Bus was held up and robbed by three armed men at 5 a.m. at the corner of Vito Cruz Street and Osmeña Highway. Witnesses said the thieves escaped in the tricycle driven by Cena whose cohorts remain at large.

Bus conductor Jason Senora reported to the police that three men had boarded their vehicle at the intersection. They announced the heist and at gunpoint, divested all the passengers of their cash and valuables amounting to P150,000.

Senora added that afterward, the three men quickly alighted from the bus with their loot and boarded a yellow tricycle waiting by the side of the road. He took note of the plate and body numbers of the vehicle and immediately reported it to authorities.

San Andres police community police precinct commander Insp. Patrick de Leon said that it took them some time before they finally spotted the vehicle and the suspect in a street located in the same area where the robbery took place.

“We apprehended the driver with the help of some informants who were familiar with the body numbers of tricycle drivers plying the area,” De Leon told the Inquirer.

Cena later admitted his involvement in the robbery but denied he knew where his cohorts were living. He told the police that he knew two of them only by their aliases “Alex” and “Kokoy.”

The tricycle driver also said that he was hired by the three to take them to the highway and follow the bus which they would rob. He also claimed that he met the suspects for the first time that morning when he was looking for passengers in Paco, Manila.

He also shared that after the robbery, the three alighted from his vehicle on Agusto Francisco Street and then hailed a taxi.

Asked by investigators how much money was given to him by his cohorts, Cena said that he had yet to be paid although the three promised to give him his share after they had sold off some of the victims’ valuables.

In a report, Santa Ana Police Station officer in charge Chief Insp. Roland Aznar said that Cena would be charged with robbery in band although probers were hoping he would lead them to his three cohorts.