CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña challenged the police to release the autopsy report of SP01 Roderick Balili, days after he accused the police of being behind the death of an anti-narcotics agent.
Osmeña also wants Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Debold Sinas to produce the car where Balili was shot.
“That’s not accidental firing. That’s ridiculous. That just proved that the policemen are involved. And he was not shot twice, he was shot thrice, one in the arm and two in the body, and that came from someone inside the operating room,” the mayor told reporters yesterday.
Osmeña said the police’s story on what happened to Balili is a cover-up.
“I challenge the general (Sinas) to produce the car where he (Balili) was shot. Produce the car. They’re in the position to cover up everything. You can get the slugs from the body (of Balili) and match it with the pistol of the PDEA agent who was shot... you know, they’re in the position to switch,” he said yesterday.
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agent Von Rian Tecson was killed after four men on board two motorcycles shot at his vehicle as it slowed down along the highway in Barangay Perrelos, Carcar City around 1 p.m. last Aug. 8.
Osmeña said the police can even sue him for libel for his allegations against them.
The mayor said the circumstances surrounding the accidental firing that resulted in Balili’s death are “absurd.”
“In the first place, why should your pistol be handed to you in the car? That’s absurd. If you have the pistol, you carry your pistol. You don’t have a yaya carrying the pistol for you and in the car, hand the pistol to you and then you will have this weird incident where you shot yourself three times. My God, that’s the wildest imagination,” Osmeña said.
“Then you ask yourself how come no one sent an ambulance from Cebu City? I mean, none of you did that? Call an ambulance because one got shot. How come there’s too much hidden, hidden, secret, secret there in the hospital? Then they said he’s dead but in stable condition,” he said.
Last Wednesday, police officials said Balili and two others were sent out to conduct surveillance on a drug personality in Pinamungajan, a town 32 kilometers from Carcar, or an hour’s drive away across the mountains.
Based on Sinas’s account at the press conference, Balili was in the rear passenger seat of a police service vehicle.
He asked for his gun which was with the driver.
The driver handed it to him but then they encountered a hump on the road, which caused the driver to pull the trigger accidentally.
During last Friday’s press conference, Sinas said that people wrongly connected the “accidental firing” in Pinamungajan to the ambush-slay of Tecson in Carcar.
“General, don’t think that the Cebuanos are stupid. You’re making it clear the you’re the enemy of Cebu,” he said.
Osmeña, who claims to know guns, said it’s impossible for Balili to be shot accidentally with a Glock pistol.
“You can’t shoot yourself with a Glock, believe me. I have a Glock and I’ve known firearms for a long time. Its the safest pistol,” he said.