HE’S glad he is alive. “God is so kind to me,” said PO3 Diogenes Carillo, who survived a shootout with barangay tanods in the early hours of Monday in Punta Engaño, Lapu-Lapu City. “I’m not going to get killed yet.”
But Carillo was charged by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 7 for illegal possession of a firearm in relation to the gun ban.
CIDG 7 also charged barangay tanods Alejandro Beloria and Remigio Bantilo, who are under arrest, for the same violation.
The two, who were wounded but survived the shootout, were charged with murder and frustrated murder along with their alleged cohorts Timmy Morata, Nicky Boy Rodelas, Raynor Siyang, Juanito Dumaguen and Edgar Mabuang, who are still at large.
The tanods are said to be former members of the Philippine Army’s Scout Rangers.
Carillo told Sun.Star Cebu he was the one ambushed by the tanods of Barangay Captain Lourdes Ibag. He just returned fire. In an earlier report, Ibag denied the claim.
CIDG 7 Chief Senior Supt. Ramon Rafael said Carillo surrendered yesterday. He handed over his .45 service pistol for a ballistic examination and submitted to a paraffin test, which shows gunpowder residue on the hands of those who have recently fired a weapon.
Bantilo and Beloria refused to undergo the same test upon the advice of their legal counsel, Atty. Noel Archival.
Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Ager Ontog Jr. formed a task force to dig deeper and find out who between the two parties is telling the truth.
He designated Deputy Regional Director for Operations Louie Oppus, a former Lapu-Lapu City police chief, to head the task force.
“The task force will determine who are responsible and who will be charged,” Ontog said. He gave the task force not later than Thursday to come up with a final
investigation report and file the charges needed.
As for PO3 Carillo, Ontog said, he has been taken under the custody of the CIDG 7 to answer a separate administrative investigation.
Carillo was supposed to be in Liloan town for the elections. He was assigned there to keep him from being accused of partisanship, as his wife ran for barangay councilor in Punta Engaño.
In Carillo’s affidavit, he said he was not in police uniform while he was on his way home on a motorcycle early last Monday.
He was about to fetch his wife Emma from the house of barangay captain candidate Angel Rodriguez. But he left ahead of his wife, who was busy preparing for the elections.
Emma ran for councilor under Rodriguez’s slate. (Both of them lost.)
While on his motorcycle, Carillo said he saw Demetrio Sumalpong Jr. driving a motorcycle with Edmund Reyes as his back rider. Sumalpong and Reyes were about to buy bottled water.
A few meters away, a white Toyota Grandia van stopped and blocked their path. Four of the attackers, who were armed with baby Armalite rifles, alighted and fired at him.
Sumalpong was hit twice on his back and then fell. He later died. Reyes was not hit.
Carillo jumped off from his motorcycle, rolled and crawled toward a mahogany tree to take cover. He traded shots and retreated to Rodriguez’s compound.
The attackers followed and continued firing at him until at the gate of the house of Rodriguez, he said. Later, they left.
A bullet grazed Carillo on his right arm. Beloria was hit in the chest, while Bantilo
took a bullet in the left thigh.
Carillo said he easily identified the tanods because they were unmasked. He will press charges against them.
Meanwhile, on behalf of Ibag, Atty. Archival filed a complaint at the Office of the Ombudsman against Carillo for violating the election gun ban and for grave misconduct.
In her affidavit, Ibag said Carillo “committed grave misconduct in using his position to enhance the political activity of his wife.”
Ibag won a fresh term as the barangay captain of Punta Engaño and was proclaimed the winner at 6 a.m. yesterday, more than 24 hours since the shootout.
She got 1,811 votes, while her rival Angel Rodriguez got 1,678.
Punta Engaño has 5,100 registered voters. About 1,611 voters did not show up in their precincts.
Lapu-Lapu City Election Officer Atty. Ferdinand Gujilde in a phone interview said he did not believe the shootout scared some voters.
He said it was expected during barangay election that only 60 to 70 percent would turn up to vote.
Gujilde further said there was a minor disruption during the counting yesterday dawn when someone ran inside the school and another one shouted for help.
This alarmed the teachers. But they continued the counting later, after the persons were not seen and heard again.
“I believe someone was doing the drama to disrupt the counting,” Gujilde said in Cebuano.
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