CASE solved.
This was what Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Royina Garma said on the status of the case on the shootout between members of the Bacaltos and Navales families in Barangay Sambag 1 last Jan. 21 that left three people dead.
Two days after the shooting, operatives of the Abellana Police Station filed charges before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office against Vincent Alferez Navales, the older brother of Vanzant Navales, who was among those killed during the incident.
Serving as complainant was Alma Bacaltos, wife of Edwin Bacaltos, who was another one of those killed during the shootout.
As of Thursday, Jan. 31, police were still waiting to find out from city prosecutors how they would review the complaint they filed against the older Navales.
During a press conference held Wednesday by the Navales camp’s lawyers, lawyer Amando Virgil Ligutan related that Vanzant, carrying a gun, went to the home of the Bacaltos family in the morning of Jan. 21 because he had a personal grudge against Michael Bacaltos, a former friend.
Before he went there, the Navales group and Bacaltos group had met along the road on their way home from a bar in Cebu City. “Something happened,” Ligutan said.
Ligutan showed the press a screen shot of a private message Bacaltos sent Vanzant, which read: “Bayot ka uy hahaha.”
Ligutan said this message enraged Vanzant, who then went to the Bacaltos home to talk to Michael, after the latter refused to answer his calls.
The gunfight that ensued claimed the lives of Vanzant, and the father and brother of Bacaltos—Edwin and Shaun.
Ligutan presented CCTV footage which he said showed that Vanzant arrived alone in his car, and that his brother Vincent and other companions followed only later in a bid to pacify Vanzant.
He said Vanzant retreated when the patriarch Edwin Bacaltos emerged from the house carrying a high-powered gun, and that Edwin then shot Vanzant. When Vanzant lost his grip on his gun, Michael picked it up and fired, hitting his own father Edwin, and Vincent Navales.
Michael also allegedly shot Vanzant, who was already down on the ground.
The Navales lawyers did not give any theory on who shot Shaun Bacaltos.
In an interview, Garma said that aside from Navales, city police also filed charges against Michael Bacaltos for the same incident.
Bacaltos is currently out on bail after the murder charges against him were downgraded to homicide.
Garma explained that aside from Bacaltos, they also sued three companions of Vanzant and Vincent who had already been identified by operatives of the Abellana Police Station.
Earlier, the Bacaltos family denied that Michael started the shootout, claiming he was only defending his father from Vanzant’s threats.
“It appears in the investigation that there was no element of self-defense, as claimed by one of the parties. But it’s up to the court to decide. They can always use that argument once the case goes to court,” Garma said in Cebuano.
With the complaint lodged before the court, local police are now waiting for an arrest warrant to be issued against the respondents.
Police are looking at two angles in the incident: First, an argument concerning the car businesses of Vanzant and Michael; and second, a possible love triangle incident.
They are also not discounting the possibility that the fatal shooting incident was due to a personal grudge between the two men that started five years ago.
But for Garma, it will be up to the court to weigh the claims of both parties.
She declined to comment further on the case since it has already been lodged before the court.