Crossfire victim’s kin won’t file raps vs cops

WHEN gunshots rang out in Fabian Compound, Muntinlupa City on the evening of Oct. 7, 10-year-old Heart Macapagal started running home from a neighboring sari-sari (retail) store.

But with just steps to go before she could reach her front door where her anxious mother was waiting, Heart was hit by a stray bullet in the neck. She spent several days in the city hospital’s intensive care unit before she passed away on Friday.

The bullet that had hit her came from a firefight which broke out near her house between two members of the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group (HPG) in civilian clothes who were going after a car theft suspect and a Muntinlupa City policeman who thought the operatives were criminals.

Heart was the third person to die as a result of the incident. SPO1 Macario Romano of the PNP-HPG was buried in Nueva Ecija on Sunday while the wake of car theft suspect Michael Maranan is ongoing at Fabian Compound.

Four others were also wounded in the firefight: HPG member SPO1 Aniceto Santiago, PO3 Mersar Rapirap, Maranan’s sister Anna Loraine and another resident, Aileen Duran.

Santiago and Duran remain hospitalized. Duran underwent surgery on her leg on Sunday evening while Santiago is in critical condition because the bullet hit his spine, according to Muntinlupa police chief Senior Supt. Roque Vega.

Surprisingly, the Macapagal family have chosen not to push through with their plan to file reckless imprudence with homicide charges against the HPG, Vega said.

‘It’s all up to God now’

“Nobody wanted it to happen. [The HPG] also lost one member. Another is in critical condition. It’s all up to God now,” Heart’s uncle, Jay, told the INQUIRER yesterday at the girl’s wake in Saint Jerome Emiliani and Sta. Susana Parish, Ayala Alabang.

The Maranan family, however, have filed a murder charge against Santiago at the city prosecutor’s office, Vega said.

“They feel there was a premeditated intent to kill [Maranan]. He was unarmed so the [HPG members] were using excessive force,” the police official added.

Vega earlier told the INQUIRER that witnesses had told the police that Santiago and Romano, whowere in civilian clothes and did not identify themselves as policemen, suddenly opened fire onMaranan at 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 7.

Jay, meanwhile, said that according to their neighbors, Rapirap was talking with Maranan, his childhood friend, when shots were fired.

Rapirap who was a resident of the area, immediately returned fire as he thought the HPGmembers were criminals.

Jay said Fabian Compound was an otherwise “peaceful area.” Maranan was known to his neighbors as a mechanic whose parents lived in the area.

Vega had said that investigators were looking into a possible violation of standard operating procedures committed by the HPG members. He added that Santiago and Romano had not been assigned to do field work.

‘He did nothing wrong’

So far, no complaints have been filed against Rapirap, Vega said, adding that no administrative charge would be filed against the policeman either because “he did nothing wrong.”

Muntinlupa public information officer Tez Navarro told the INQUIRER that the HPG was helping Heart’s family with her funeral and burial expenses while the city government took care of her hospital bills.

She will be buried at Everest Hills Memorial Park in Muntinlupa City at 10 a.m. tomorrow.