Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Witnesses tag cop who hit 2 civilians during shootout
CHARGES of frustrated homicide will be filed against PO1 Luther Lapinig for injuring two civilians in a shootout with another policeman last Sunday morning.
Cebu City Police Office Director Patrocinio Comendador and Homicide Section Chief Mario Monilar said they are preparing evidence and affidavits from witnesses and from PO3 Inocencio Lumayag Jr.
Based on witnesses’ accounts, it was Lapinig that hit civilians Rowel Tanduyan Abarri, 27, and Dario Ybańez Encarnacion, 43, during the shootout with Lumayag past 5 a.m. last Sunday on Garfield St. in Barangay Pahina San Nicolas, Cebu City.
Comendador said Lumayag’s responding to a trouble alarm and the presence of an armed person were legitimate.
No excuse
But just because an officer who identified himself as a policeman was not in uniform is “not an excuse” for one not to believe him, Vice Mayor Michael Rama said.
Rama said Lapinig should have followed standard operating procedure and yielded when Lumayag said he is a police officer.
The incident showed the policemen’s lack of firearms training and nothing will happen if PNP officials will not come up with intervention measures, he said.
“Daghang nahasol ato ilang binuang. I would like to know what precipitated it,” the vice mayor further said.
Lumayag, who is a member of the miscellaneous team of the Carbon Police Station, resides on Garfield St.
Lapinig went to the area because his younger brother Donald, who is renting a boarding house on Garfield St., asked the policeman to come over. Donald was reportedly mauled by two men.
Instead of pacifying, Lapinig allegedly allowed his brother and two other companions to retaliate.
In civvies
Both policemen, who were in civilian clothes, did not recognize each other, which resulted in the shootout.
Lapinig, who suffered a graze wound in the butt, was arrested by Lumayag and a team of Special Weapons and Tactics led by SPO1 Renante Neuda after a brief chase.
Monilar said Lapinig, who is assigned at the Regional Intelligence Office (RIO) 7, admitted hitting the two civilians who were reportedly near Lumayag’s back when the shootout occurred.
“He (Lapinig) is arrested. He is the suspect,” Monilar said.
Both Monilar and Comendador agreed that Lapinig should have coordinated with the police hotline 166 or the nearest police station when the latter received the call of his brother asking for assistance.
“Lapinig is not assigned in Cebu City, so he should have coordinated with the CCPO,” Monilar said.
“In the territorial unit, you can perform a job without any coordination. But if you are outside territorial unit where the incident occurred, you should coordinate,” Comendador also said.
Comendador said he has been reminding his men to be cautious in responding to a call for help from relatives or kin because the tendency is a policeman will lost his objectivity, disposition.
“Mopatigbabaw ang dugo ba,” Comendador said. (JST/RHM)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (November 11, 2007 issue)
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