Suspect’s death under custody shocks Maasin

TACLOBAN City-Local residents, a lawmaker and religious officials expressed shock over the death of a 34-year-old suspected theft under police custody in Maasin City, Southern Leyte.

On Tuesday, December 13, the Police Regional Office in Eastern Visayas formally filed a homicide case against police officer Staff Sergeant Ronald Gamayon, 36, who arrested Gilbert Ranes in relation to a theft incident at about 7:30 p.m. of December 9, in Barangay Mantahan in Maasin.

“Rest assured that this Police Regional Office will closely monitor this case or similar incidents involving officers under my watch. Here in Eastern Visayas, we do not tolerate misfits among our rank and file,” said Brigadier General Rommel Francisco Marbil, police regional director.

Information released by the Police Regional Office identified Gamayon as an officer assigned to the Provincial Intelligence Unit (PIU) of the Southern Leyte Police Provincial Office (SLPPO).

According to the medical report released by SLPPO, Ranes died from “severe head trauma.”

SLPPO director Colonel Hector Enage said he and the entire police force in the province were “in sorrow over what happened.”

According to the police regional command, Gamayon has been placed under restrictive custody of SLPPO. Four responding officers of Maasin City Police Station “were already reassigned to the Provincial Office effective December 12,” relative to the incident.

Congressman Christopherson “Coco” Yap, of the Second District of Southern Leyte, also commended the SLPPO and Enage “for responding to this matter with dispatch and transparency, for bringing those responsible for this act of inhumanity to justice, and for reassuring the public that our Philippine National Police (PNP) will not hesitate to prosecute even their own.”