By Joel M. Sy Egco

Four young students, including a nephew of former Rep. Prospero Pichay Jr. and a son of a Malacañang lawyer, were arrested early morning yesterday for allegedly robbing a taxi driver inside the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City.

The four—one from Angelicum School along with three culinary arts students at the Ateneo de Manila University—were charged with robbery holdup on the complaint of Jose Maligsa, driver of Jolyn Audrey Taxi (TXT-920).

Turned over by the UP Police to QC Station 9, they were identified by Supt. Franklin Moises Mabanag, chief of the QC Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, as Datu Jidreel Pichay, 19, of Angelicum high school with Ateneans Mark Lawrence Dagatan, 18; Michael Vincent Dy, 24; a 17-year-old minor was unnamed for privacy.

Supt. Oscar Palisoc, station commander, said the charges were filed after investigation.

Mabanag said the suspects, who were soused up, rode the taxicab around 1 a.m. from a computer shop along Xavierville Avenue in Loyola Heights and instructed the driver to head for UP.

There, investigation showed, the students declared a holdup, prompting Maligsa to abandon the vehicle and seek help from residents.

Maligsa said one of the group brandished a gun and a knife while he was being divested of his mobile phone and P3,000 earnings.

The suspects reportedly panicked when the driver began yelling, which alarmed the neighborhood.

Residents and university policemen were able to prevent their escape.

A spot report indicated that they were drunk but Dy, the oldest of the four, denied Maligsa’s allegation and claimed that he and his friends were merely horsing around.

“Napagtripan lang naming siyang holdapin [We just took fancy to declaring a heist],” he told the police, adding that they took a jeepney.

But authorities noted that passenger jeepneys in the place were usually unavailable by midnight.

Mabanag said no gun was recovered but a fan knife was found.

“They were released for further investigation [yesterday] morning. I think the charges have been dropped because the complainant already filed an affidavit of desistance,” he told Standard Today.