The victim, Roland Diazon, 18, second year student of the College of Agriculture at the University of Southern Mindanao in Kabacan, North Cotabato, was reportedly seated beside the driver when six robbers announced a holdup.
Diazon said he was trying to raise his arm as a sign of surrender but the robbers apparently mistook the gesture for something else. He was thus shot and hit on his right chest.
Diazon was rushed to a hospital here for treatment.
Sr. Insp. Reynate Cabico, chief of the Carmen PNP, said the suspects spoke in Maguindanao.
The armed men reportedly boarded the bus in Barangay Limbalod between Kabacan and Carmen towns, not far from a military detachment.
They declared a holdup upon reaching a deserted area in Barangay General Luna in Carmen town near the road leading to Pagalungan town, which the suspects used as their escape route. Some motorcycles were parked nearby, reports said.
After carting away some cash and valuables, the armed men then boarded the motorcycles.
Earlier this year, robbers also held up a bus owned by People's Transport in Pikit town. The suspects employed the same getaway technique by using motorycles parked not far from where they stopped the bus to announce the holdup.
Also in Pikit, suspected thieves shot dead a motorcycle driver when he tried to wrestle with one of the holduppers. The suspects also used the motorcycle as their getaway vehicle. (MindaNews)
