A MOTORCYCLE-FOR-HIRE driver and a woman rolled their way to safety and away from a group of men who tried to kill them yesterday dawn. They both believed that the men who tried to shoot them were policemen.
Driver Antonio Ruiz Bilandes, 57, was with the group of five men shot dead in Barangay Malubog, Cebu City past 3 a.m.
He survived after he was able to run downhill, he said in an interview over dyAB radio. He suffered a graze wound in the body.
He said he did not know the identities of the five men found dead in Malubog.
The other survivor of the incident was identified as Sharmaine Puran. She faked her death to survive her ordeal. She dug a hole and covered herself after escaping what she described were black-clad assailants.
Puran and Bilandes failed to see the faces of the culprits as they were blindfolded.
While the Scene of the Crime Operatives were processing the crime scene in Barangay Malubog, journalists were taking notes and doing interviews, and people in the neighborhood were just being nosy when Puran came out crawling and crying out of the bushes past 8 a.m. of the same day. “Tabang (Help!),” she cried out. She then tried to make her way up the hill to where the people were gathered around the crime scene.
Fear
When police tried to help her out, she tried to get away from them out of fear. At one point, while surrounded by people, she collapsed but was caught by a policewoman.
Police Regional Office 7 Director Debold Sinas talked with Puran inside the Malubog Barangay Hall and later with Bilandes.
He assured the two victims that police would secure them. Two police officers were assigned to the hospital where they were admitted.
Sinas denied they had any participation in the murder of the five men. He said they consider Puran and Bilandes victims.
He talked with the two survivors, who clarified to him that they still trust the police.
“They are not afraid of the police,” Sinas said in Cebuano.
He said the investigators will get the survivors’ statements.
The police official said he heard the radio interview with Bilandes, who said he heard his abductors mention the family names Bautista and Abella.
“Miingon man sila, ‘Asa man diay si Chief Bautista?’ (They said, ‘So where was Chief Bautista?’),” said Bilandes.
The other person mentioned that Abella was calling them on the phone.
“Actually, he was not saying he was a policeman. Nakadungog lang siya’g pangalan Bautista ug Abella (He just heard the names Bautista and Abella),” Sinas said.
Sinas said the radio interview cannot be admitted as evidence.
“Inig abot sa fiscal, ilabay lang na sa amoa (At the prosecutor’s office, they will just throw it at us),” he said.
Puran narrated that she and her friend “Juvel” went to the old One Pavilion in Barangay Banawa, Cebu City for an illegal drug transaction with a certain Jessica past 5 p.m. last Wednesday.
Bilandes, for his part, said that he and a fellow motorcycle-for-hire driver transported two passengers from Barangay Mambaling to One Pavilion on Wednesday afternoon.
After they arrived in the area, the two passengers went inside an apartment.
But five to six persons came out and brought the two drivers inside. Bilandes believed them to be police, saying: “Bag-o tong pulisa tan-aw nako. Puros pa mga batan-on (I think they were new policemen. They were young).”
Puran said that when they arrived at One Pavilion, a white van arrived. Three armed men forced Puran and Juvel inside the vehicle. They were blindfolded.
Puran told reporters she did not know where the van was going. She heard the armed men talking about bringing her and Juvel to a warehouse.
Drugs
She also said that they went around Barangay Busay and were asked who owned the vehicle which carried the shabu, then told that if they told the truth, everything would be okay.
“Si Jessica ang among ka-transaksyon. Wa ko kahibaw sa apelyido (Our transaction was with Jessica. I don’t know her family name),” said Puran, who was forced to admit her involvement in the sale of illegal drugs. “We were blindfolded and forced to ride the van. But no Jessica arrived.”
Bilandes was also asked about his involvement with illegal drugs.
Puran noticed the van entering “PC Hills” when she peeked through a little gap in the blindfold. After they arrived in a warehouse, she saw another five men.
She continued in Bisaya: “There was another van that arrived with men inside. The men were forced to kneel. I didn’t know them.”
They went out after hours of staying in the warehouse.
After arriving in a secluded area, Puran said they were transferred to another van, which was strafed with automatic rifles.
Puran said she was not hit after she sat on the van’s floor.
One of the gunmen opened the van and checked if all were dead. When he found that Puran was still alive, he ordered her to get out of the van.
Puran’s hands were bound with a cable tie, which she still had on her arm when she came out of hiding hours later. Thinking she would be killed, she pushed the gunman aiming a rifle at her and ran. She took off the blindfold.
The gunmen fired at her several times. Every time she heard a shot, she fell to the ground. She then fell into a ravine and continued crawling. She later found a small hole, which she dug for her whole body to fit inside.
Puran covered herself with soil and grass to hide herself until the men left.
Sinas said they would not file cases against Puran and Bilandes as they were victims. Police will need their statements to help investigators identify the culprits.