MANILA – Authorities arrested one of the suspects in the shooting of a couple inside a provincial bus in Nueva Ecija last month, according to a belated police report released on Tuesday.
Nueva Ecija Police provincial director Col. Richard Caballero said the suspect, Allan delos Santos, gave crucial information about his participation in the killing of partners Gloria Atilano and Arman Bautista and voluntarily executed an extrajudicial confession with the assistance of counsel.
Delos Santos, who also has warrants of arrest for statutory rape and sexual assault, was arrested in Dilasag, Aurora on Nov. 20, five days after the killing.
“According doon sa initial na lumabas sa investigation, sometime September nag-start ‘yung planning nila doon sa pagpatay at ‘yung motibo na tiningnan natin initially nung nag-start tayo sa investigation ay ‘yung filing ng robbery at saka carnapping case ng victim na babae doon sa sarili niyang anak (Based on our initial investigation, they started planning the murder and the motive that we are initially looking at when we started our probe is the filing of robbery and carnapping case of the female victim against his own son)," Caballero said in a press briefing.
He said another angle is Atilano’s alleged disinheritance of her son, as bared by a sister of the victim in a video interview.
Caballero said a criminal complaint for two counts of murder against delos Santos and three others -- Atilano’s son and his live-in partner, and an unnamed gunman -- was filed before the Prosecutor's Office in Nueva Ecija on Monday.
On Nov. 15 when the bus reached a mountainous portion of Barangay Minuli in Carranglan town, two men stood up from the back and walked towards the victims.
One of the suspects shot the victims at point-blank range, reportedly six times to the head and neck, before alighting and fleeing through a nearby river.
The incident was captured by the dash camera of the bus. (PNA)
