SAN CARLOS CITY–Three policemen, one of them a superintendent and former police chief, have been sentenced to life imprisonment for robbery with double homicide and attempted homicide.

Superintendent Artemio Lamsen, former police chief of Malasiqui, P01 Anthony Abulencia also from Malasiqui, assigned at the provincial police office, and SPO1 Alfredo Ramos from this city and assigned at the Traffic Management Group in Southern Tagalog were found guilty beyond reasonable doubt by Regional Trial Court Judge Anthony Sison of branch 57.

The convicted were also ordered to pay the families of their victims more than P5 million indamages and to return the P2.7 million collected from the robbery of three banks.

The three maintain their innocence and intend to appeal the case before higher courts.

“Now I believe that someone could be convicted for a sin he did not really commit. It happened to me,” said a crying Lamsen in an interview with newsmen at the provincial jail in Lingayen a day after the court’s decision was issued.

Lamsen, who was in the police service for 28 years, said prior to attending Wednesday’s promulgation, he already packed his things and even turned over some belongings to his cellmate, confident that he would be acquitted.

He said from the firstday of his incarceration, he willingly subjected himself to the wheel of justice believing that he would clear his name one day through his acquittal.

“It’s embarrassing to my family. I thought truth will prevail. I couldn’t accept it,” he said.

Abulencia, meanwhile, also said he is unhappy with the decision.

“We also want justice. We are also the victims here,” he said in an interview at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in San Carlos City where he is detained.

“I have prepared myself for it. I have accepted the decision but it doesn’t end there the truth will set us free,” Abulencia said.

Ramos declined to be interviewed.

The crime involved the death of Fernando Sy, then manager of Equitable Bank in San Carlos City and his driver Arturo Mariado, who were robbed and shot on February 19, 2001 along Barangay Coliling as they were transporting bank funds.

A bank security guard who survived the attack has since been missing.

On that day, Lamsen said he and Abulencia were on their way from a court hearing in the city when they heard gun shots about 300 meters away from their location and decided to check the incident.

Witnesses have pointed to them, along with Ramos who was then on board another vehicle, as the suspects.#

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