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Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Cop kills man vigilantes shot
By Allan I. Varquez & Jovy S. Taghoy
Sun.Star Staff Reporters
An ex-convict who survived a vigilante-style attack last July was shot and killed in Barangay Buhisan, Cebu City last night by a policeman.
Witnesses said Alemar Luna, 39, kept threatening some people who were gathered for a game of bingo. He carried a .45 pistol with him.
Knowing Luna had been in and out of the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) in the last two decades, the people didn’t take the threats lightly.
They asked a neighbor, PO3 Jerome Java, for help. Java grabbed his shotgun and rushed to where the bingo game was held, some 20 meters from his house.
As soon as he saw Luna with a handgun in his waistband, Java identified himself as a policeman and asked him to surrender. Luna, however, allegedly drew his firearm and fired at Java, provoking the policeman to fire back.
Luna got hit in the head.
Before the attack on Luna, 11 other cases of shooting marred the holiday weekend in Cebu, ending four lives.
Of the 11 shooting attacks—six in the province and five in Cebu City—three happened while the victims were attending either a Christmas dance or a party.
Based on records of the Cebu City Police Homicide Section, four died in separate shooting incidents. One that occurred at 9:30 p.m. of Dec. 23 was described as a vigilante-style killing.
Survivor
Luna, for his part, nearly died in a vigilante-style attack five months ago. He was said to be a former operative of the New People’s Army (NPA) hit squad, the Sparrow Unit.
Last July 21, three masked men driving two motorcycles shot him 10 times. He survived, after being treated at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center. His attackers were never identified.
One witness, who requested not to be named, said Luna and Java were about two meters from each other last night and Luna had just told Java, “Good evening,” when the policeman fired.
Calls to the homicide section until midnight went unanswered. Java’s mobile phone was apparently switched off.
Luna was in the PNP’s order of battle for illegal drugs.
In 1984, he was jailed at the BBRC for murder and was sentenced to spend eight years in prison. His record as an NPA operative him earned him the respect of his fellow inmates, who made him their “mayor de mayores” or top inmate of BBRC, until he was released.
Back-up
In 1997, he was again arrested for murder, frustrated murder, homicide and illegal possession of firearms. He walked away after a year, when the court dismissed some of the cases and allowed him to post bail for the others.
In February 2001, he was arrested for possession of illegal drugs, firearms and explosives. He was released in 2004.
A radio operator of the Mobile Patrol Group (MPG) told Sun.Star Cebu in a mobile phone interview that their headquarters received a phone call from Java at 7:30 p.m. He asked for back-up, saying he was pursuing an armed person.
But when an MPG mobile car reached Buhisan, Luna was already dead. Java reportedly told fellow policemen that Luna fired at him first.
2 attacks
Before Luna’s death, two other men with allegations of crime hanging over their heads were shot and killed in Cebu City.
Renante B. Pag-usara, 37, of Sitio San Pedro, Barangay Duljo-Fatima, Cebu City became the 107th victim in the rash of killings that began in December last year.
Pag-usara, according to the information gathered by the homicide section, was a suspected drug pusher in the area.
He died less than five hours after Wilfredo “Lawlaw” Cabanit, 50, another suspected big-time drug pusher, was gunned down in Barangay Pasil.
Pag-usara died of gunshot wounds in the neck, chest and left hand.
Pag-usara’s cousin, Jethro, was also injured after the lone masked man shot and hit him in the chest. The bullet tore out through his right armpit. Jethro was taken to the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).
Cop chase
Two policemen, one an operative of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 7 and one assigned at the 2nd Company of the Regional Mobile Group (RMG) based in Ronda, Cebu, got entangled in two separate shooting incidents.
The first incident involving PO1 Ramil N. Tanggol, 24, of Verboten St., Hipodromo, Cebu City, an RMG member, happened at 10:45 p.m. on Dec. 24 along St. Jude St., Hipodromo.
Tanggol told homicide investigators that he was standing by the road when he spotted Kumahig Tecson, 42, a barbeque vendor, passing something to another person. He thought it was a pack of shabu.
Tanggol said he approached Tecson to check, but the latter ran away.
With his 9mm service firearm drawn, Tanggol chased Tecson.
Tecson allegedly resisted when the policeman caught up with him, causing a scuffle. He got shot in the left thigh and ended up at the Perpetual Succour Hospital.
Tecson, however, disputed Tanggol’s claim and said that he was just standing along St. Jude St. when the policeman approached and accused him of being a shabu peddler.
When he tried to run away, Tanggol shot him in the thigh, Tecson said.
Tanggol turned over his service firearm to the homicide investigators, as well as a small plastic pack of shabu, which he said belonged to Tecson.
Missed target
At 11:30 on Christmas Eve, members of the Talisay City Police Station responded to a shooting alarm allegedly perpetrated by PO2 Frederick Ronduen, an operative of PDEA 7.
Wilfredo Laurente, along with his daughter Cheryl Rosal, reported to the Talisay Police Station that the PDEA operative shot him last Dec. 24 in Sitio Laray, Barangay San Roque, Talisay City.
Laurente and Rosal reported the same incident to the Barangay Hall of Inayawan, Cebu City.
Wilfredo was attending a Christmas party when they saw Ronduen chasing someone else.
Ronduen allegedly fired his gun and hit Laurente instead.
Several bystanders, who witnessed the incident, ganged up on Ronduen and disarmed him of his .45 pistol.
Had it not been for the arrival of Inayawan barangay tanods led by Fredo Ornopia, the bystanders would have mauled Ronduen.
PO3 Renato Abellar, one of the responding policemen, called up Ronduen’s house and asked him to surrender.
Ronduen, however, said he is still waiting for an official from PDEA to escort him.
7 victims
As of yesterday afternoon, he has not yet surrendered to the police.
According to the Cebu City Police Office’s monitoring of firecracker-related incidents as of 1 a.m. of Dec. 26, only seven persons were injured by firecrackers.
Six were treated at the CCMC and one at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.
No cases of stray bullets and illegal discharge of firearms have reached the monitoring center of the local police.
(December 27, 2005 issue)
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