Cop chief replaced amid killing of three Muslims

Lapu-Lapu City police chief Senior Supt. Rommel Cabagnot will be replaced as he almost reaches the required number of years of stay as police director.

His replacement comes after the murder of three Muslims inside an internet shop in Barangay Poblacion on Sunday.

Police Regional Office-7 Director, Chief Supt. Debold Sinas told reporters yesterday that Senior Supt. Lemuel Obon, a directorial staff worker at the Police Regional Office and former commander of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion of the National Capital Region police, will replace Cabagnot.

Cabagnot will be assigned at PRO-7 headquarters while waiting for further assignment, Sinas said.

In an interview, Obon said he will continue to wage the war on drugs in Lapu-Lapu City. He also warned police officers to quit from their illegal activities.

“Sa involved sa drugs, kanang wala pa nila masakpi, atong ipadayon. Sa tanang police officers nga nalambigit sa drugs, unahan na nila nga mogawas sa Lapu-Lapu or PRO-7 kay ato na sila gukdon,” Obon said.

Obon said he will meet with Cabagnot to talk about programs that need to be retained.

REVENGE?

Meanwhile, two of the persons shot in the internet café in Poblacion on Sunday were considered persons of interest in the recent death of traffic enforcer Edmund Boter.

Supt. Eloveo Marquez. chief of Lapu-Lapu City Police Office-Investigation and Detection Management Branch (LCPO-IDMB), said Angni Osman and Jamel Marangit Babanggol were the persons allegedly behind the fatal shooting of Boter last week on G.Y. Dela Cerna Street. Boter was shot while managing traffic in the area. As to why Angni’s 22-year-old son Nasim was shot as well, Marquez theorized the assailants may have thought that the former may reveal their identities to the police.

A surveillance camera near Dela Cerna Street showed Osman and Babanggol allegedly fleeing towards the Muelle Osmeña wharf after the shooting.

As to the four unknown persons in motorcycles who attacked Angni, Nasim, and Babanggol in the computer shop, a follow-up investigation has been launched to check their whereabouts.

Marquez said there is also a possibility that Angni and Babanggol were the same people behind the death of 45-year-old Maodin Manali Lucman, a vendor who was shot dead in Barangay Poblacion by unidentified assailants on board a motorcycle last month.

Marquez said they received information that the computer shop along B.M. Dimataga Street was previously owned by Lucman. —

Christell Fatima M. Tudtud and USJ-R Intern Marenyl M. Bolhano/JMD