Awards await 3 cops wounded in drug bust shootout in Mactan

The three policemen wounded during a shootout in a drug bust operations in barangay Mactan, Lapu-Lapu City will be conferred each with the wounded personnel medal award, and the Medalya ng Kagitingan, the highest award for a policeman.

Cebu Provincial Police Office director, Sr/Supt. Vicente Loot yesterday said he will recommend to the Police Regional Office the conferment of the awards to the wounded policemen. "Angay lang tagaan sila og award," he told reporters in a press conference.

The three policemen, belonging to the Lapu-Lapu City Police, are PO3 Frederick Islit, and PO2s Jomar Ybañez and Roberto Pepito of the Special Weapons and Tactics team. They are now out of danger after treatment at the hospital, said City Police chief Louie Oppus.

Islit was wounded on his chest, Ybañez got hit in his left leg, while Pepito got injured in his right calf after a grenade was allegedly lobbed by the suspects at the policemen.

Loot said PRO-7 will shoulder the expenses of the three policemen, with the help of the governor, hinting that there were no lapses in the conduct of the operations that also left one of the suspects dead in the course of the alleged shootout.

The heavily armed policemen went to barangay Mactan the other night, supposedly for a drug bust against suspected pusher Diego Oyao and his cousin Roberto Austero Baring.

Baring, who allegedly fired first and threw the grenade at the policemen, got hit in return and failed to reach the hospital alive while Oyao managed to escape.

Oppus said the area has been under a three-month surveillance before it was decided to conduct the operation last night after receiving information that many buyers have been heading there in time for the fiesta of a nearby area.

Oppus said it was difficult to penetrate the area aside from the report that the suspects were heavily armed prompting him to call Insp. Francisco Baguio to come in with an assault team and the SWAT.

Loot said the police assessment after the surveillance was right, and it was expected that the suspects will fight back. He said a casualty is always expected. "Shooting, being shot and killed, is part of the job, it is part of the paycheck and you have to live with it" he said. - Mitchelle P. Calipayan and Norvie S. Misa