Cop killed for stopping men from gambling

The chief investigator of the Tuburan Police Station was hacked dead when he ordered several men to stop gambling in cara y cruz, a coin-tossing game, during a fiesta in barangay Alegria of the town Saturday afternoon.

The man who attacked and killed the policeman was in turn gunned down by responding policemen when he resisted arrest and shot it out with the pursuing authorities.

The slain policeman was PO3 Mily Regulacion, an Ormoc City native who resided at the town’s barangay Cogon in Tuburan. His attacker was Jerry Morato, a resident of barangay Alegria.

Morato hacked Regulacion with a scythe, hitting the latter in the abdomen and other parts of the body.

A report from the Tuburan Police Station stated that Regulacion first received a call from a client who asked him that they meet in barangay Alegria to discuss his case that Regulacion handled.

While Regulacion and his client were talking, a resident who knew him as a policeman approached him to report about a commotion at the “tigbakayan” and an altercation among the people playing the cara y cruz. 

Regulacion responded and went to the area to verify, then ordered the men to stop gambling with cara y cruz. 

Morato, who was among the players, got angry instead and lunged at Regulacion and hacked the latter with a scythe. The wounded policemen, while already sprawled on the ground, took out his service firearm and desperately tried to hit Morato several times.

Sensing that the policeman was already dead, Morato grabbed the gun then slashed Regulacion’s throat with the scythe before fleeing from the scene.

Tuburan policemen, SPO3 Edgar Dumangon, and PO2s Raul Jamero, Rommel Bangcong, Adolfo Ballovar Jr. and Rusty Ong, went to Morato’s house to arrest the suspect.

It took over an hour of negotiation with the relatives asking Morato to surrender to authorities. Instead of yielding however Morato fire shots at the policemen using the gun of his victim.

This prompted Jamero to fire back with an M-16 armalite. Morato was hit twice, one on the left shoulder and the other on the head. The resisting suspect died on the spot.

Police recovered from the crime scene the gun of Regulacion, the scythe of Morato, and a 15-inch long bolo. — Flor Z. Perolina/RAE