FORMER policeman Joel Lopez performed his job well before he was dismissed from service in 2013.
It came as a surprise then to some Lapu-Lapu City Police Office (LCPO) personnel, especially those who had worked with Lopez, when he committed suicide after killing his wife, son and stepdaughter in Barangay Valladolid, Carcar City last Sunday.
Although he was not yet the head at that time, LCPO Director Senior Supt. Rommel Cabagnot said he received no information that Lopez was into illegal drugs when he was still in service.
Based on the records from the LCPO Investigation and Detective Management Branch (IDMB), Lopez was dismissed from service along with two other police officers in 2013 for their failure to attend court hearings as witness against drug suspects Jesse Rey Bongo and Ronald Cuizon, who were caught in 2012.
Supt. Eloveo Marquez, chief of IBMD, said the criminal case against Bongo and Cuizon was dismissed last Oct. 4, 2012 because of the police officers’ failure to attend the court hearings.
“As I remember, they did not receive the summons but their explanation was not honored by the judge, saying that they themselves know there was a case,” he said.
Marquez said the three police officers were eventually dismissed from service.
A psychiatrist believed that the late police officer may have suffered from depression, prompting him to kill himself and his family. (FMG)