10 MORE HUNTED
AFTER 7 KILLED, COPS TARGET OTHER GROUP MEMBERS
The Lapu-Lapu City Police Office (LCPO) is looking for the 10 other members, including the leader, of the seven suspected drug personalities and gun-for-hire members who were killed in an operation in Sitio St. Michael, Barangay Pajac, last Wednesday afternoon.
Twenty operatives of the LCPO, though, will face an investigation for the Wednesday operation.
Police Deputy Director General for Operations Archie Francisco Gamboa said the automatic internal inquiry is set by Camp Crame for any operations that resulted in the deaths of suspects or police officers.
Gamboa assured the public
GUILLERMA DELA TORRE
they will be unbiased in the inquiry, but added that the operatives are presumed doing their job regularly. The police official was the guest of the 117th Police Service Anniversary celebrated by the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 yesterday.
The Internal Affairs Service will look into the operation, which was a follow-up against the suspects who were reportedly involved in the murders of aeronautical school student Kristian Saldivia and security guard Laurencio Geluano Revijane Jr.
The two were reportedly mistaken as police assets by the suspects, who also engaged in burglaries.
The fatalities during the police’s operation Wednesday were identified as Abundio de la Torre Jr., Allan de la Torre, Mohaimen Conda Mauyag, a certain Jovan, Shainoden Dimasimpan, a certain Mantak and Manuel Pepito. Two of them had been charged for the murder of Saldavia.
Relatives of two fatalities contradicted the police statement. One said her son was not a bad person and she did not see him with a gun while another relative said those killed merely sought refuge in her house when the shooting started.
Sought for comment, LCPO Director Lemuel Obon welcomed the investigation, but said that the encounter with the suspects was legitimate.
“Our purpose was to apprehend, pero gibakbakan man ta (but they fired at us),” he said.
Obon said they are still looking for the group’s 10 other members, including their leader.
The group was traced after a witness to Revijane’s killing told the police that one of the suspects was hiding in Sitio St. Michael.
Obon said two teams, composed of 20 operatives, went to the interior portion of Sitio St.
GINANG FE LAUM
Michael when the suspects started firing at them. They retaliated and hit the suspects in different parts of their bodies.
“It was a close quarter battle,” he said.
No police officer was hit as all operatives wore bulletproof vests. Several packs of shabu and short firearms were recovered from the suspects’ possession.
Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza, for her part, said she wants troublemakers to leave the city.
“Molihay nalang sila. Mohawa sila diri sa Lapu-Lapu kay magdala ra man og gubot. (They should just leave Lapu-Lapu if they will only bring chaos),” she said.
Radaza said she will send a communication to the family of Saldavia in Dipolog City about the death of the suspects.
PRO 7 Director Debold Sinas, in a separate interview, said he ordered the Regional Investigation and Detective Management Division to conduct a separate investigation on that anti-drug operation.
Sinas said the Commission on Human Rights can also investigate on its own.
Sinas said Pajac’s village chief thanked them for going after the suspects.
Teams from the LCPO-Mobile Force Company and Special Weapons and Tactics were deployed in Pajac to conduct patrols. /
Di man na siya badlungon. Wa man ko kita nga duna na siyay armas. (He is not bad. I did not see him owning a gun).
Mother of Abundio dela Torre Jr.
Didto man kuno na nanagan ang mga batan-on sa amoa, unya girakrakan man kuno among balay. (The minors sought refuge in our house when the police attacked).
Live-in partner of Manuel Pepito, who believes that the death of her partner was a case of mistaken identity since he was close with the minors who were killed.