I WOKE up to the news that someone tried to ambush former Tejero barangay captain Jessielou Cadungog in the barangay.
But the gunman didn’t count on Cadungog’s companion being a sharpshooter because the former ended up being shot, in the head, while his alleged partner in crime was apprehended.
Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak identified the gunman as PO2 Eugene Alcuin Calumba, a member of the Drug Enforcement Unit of Police Station 1, while his partner is Michael Moreno Banua, an anti-crime volunteer according to his identification card.
Banua was first brought to the Cebu City Medical Center because Tumulak thought he was hurt, but when the former was examined there was not a scratch in his body.
It all seemed straightforward, right? Wrong.
Writers of the long-running show “Probinsyano” should take note because there’s a twist in the plot that would make Agatha Christie smile.
Chief Supt. Debold Sinas, the Police Regional Office 7 director, announced that Calumba was the victim.
Sinas said that Calumba and Banua were conducting an anti-drug surveillance in the area when they were attacked by Cadungog’s men.
If you don’t know already, Cadungog is the owner of the gun that was recovered from SPO1 Adonis Dumpit after he was killed during a shootout in Bohol last month.
Cadungog had confirmed this in an interview, saying that he sold the .45 pistol to Dumpit, who was his “kumpare,” in 2017.
Police have maintained that the operation against Dumpit was legitimate. That the latter was involved in the illegal drug trade.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he was sure that his former bodyguard was not involved in any shenanigans while he was here, but he also admitted that he heard rumors about the latter’s “monkey business” in Bohol.
Going back to the Cadungog incident, I found out that the NBI had called for a press conference at 1 p.m., but I couldn’t wait. I had somewhere to go.
But this I know.
Banua is in police custody. Wait, let me be more precise. Members of the CIDG went to the Waterfront Police Station to collect him. I assume on Sinas’s orders.
Tumulak, the apprehending officer, said he doesn’t know where Banua was taken.
Meanwhile, Sinas urged Tumulak to return the evidence the latter recovered in the crime scene or risk getting charge with obstruction of justice.
He also ordered a manhunt against Cadungog and his companions.
Cadungog, who I thought was the target of a botched assassination, has become the prime suspect in Calumba’s death.
Talk about a plot thickening.