A RETIRED police officer was shot to death by two men last Thursday night on V. Rama Ave., Cebu City.
In the southwestern Cebu town of Balamban, a retired firefighter was arrested for shooting two Barangay Cantibas tanods who were on patrol.
In Cebu City, police are looking into the possibility that former police officer Crisologo Tabares, 48, was killed over a personal conflict or in relation to illegal drugs.
Tabares was an operative of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7. He availed himself of early retirement in 2012.
SPO4 Rey Cuyos of the Cebu City Police Office's Homicide Section said that Tabares died of gunshot wounds in the head, chest and wrist.
Fight
Tabares' son told GMA 7 24-Oras Central Visayas report that his father had a fight with someone a few days ago.
Initial investigation by the police revealed that Tabares had just left a roadside lottery outlet shortly after 7 p.m. when a man approached and shot him.
Witnesses said that a bleeding Tabares tried to run away from his attacker. But when he reached the middle of the street, another man came and fired at him.
Tabares died in the middle of the road.
Witnesses could not identify the two attackers whose faces were covered with cloth. The two men got on a motorcycle and drove towards N. Bacalso Ave., Cebu City.
Responding police officers of the San Nicolas Police Station, led by SPO4 Sanrico Jolejole, found seven deformed slugs identified as that of a .45 firearm near the body of Tabares.
Firefighter
In Balamban, police arrested retired firefighter Anselmo Panso Balbona, 56, who tried to flee after allegedly shooting tanods Arnel Simacas Melgar, 33, and Romulado Garban Ylaya, 56.
Melgar and Ylaya were conducting patrols in Barangay Cantibas around 9:30 p.m. last Thursday when they heard gunshots.
The tanods later came Balbona and another man who were drinking liquor. When the tanods asked the two men about the gunfire, Balbona allegedly pulled out a gun and fired at them.
Melgar was hit several times but Laya, who was hit in the right hand, was able to shoot back and hit Balbona on the right shoulder.
The tanods were rushed to a public hospital.
Balbona tried to escape on his L300 van, but he was intercepted by the police in Barangay Buanoy, Balamban.
Suicides
Investigator PO2 Alfredo Degracia said they seized a .45 pistol loaded with seven bullets from the suspect.
Meanwhile, a jobless man and a 15-year-old boy afflicted with polio committed suicide on separate occasions in Sibonga and Dumanjug.
At 11 a.m. yesterday, a 15-year-old grade seven pupil committed suicide inside his house in Barangay Mangyan, Sibonga.
Police said the suicide was seen by his older sister, who has polio and is bedridden.
Gory (full name withheld) was rushed by his mother and neighbors to the town's public hospital, but the attending physician declared him dead.
SPO1 Jaime Mendoza of the Sibonga Police said the boy got sick with polio this year.
Gory could still walk but his mother said his physical condition and the bullying he experienced may have caused him to kill himself.
In Barangay Tapon, Dumanjug, Jose (full name withheld) was found by his two children hanging inside his room last Thursday at 5:45 p.m.
The kids called their relatives to rescue Jose, 49. When relatives got Jose’s body down, he was no longer breathing.
Municipal Administrator Danny Macoy reported the incident to the police.
Jose’s wife told the police that her husband was suffering from mental illness. She refused to let her husband's body to undergo autopsy.