Camp Lapu-Lapu violence: Soldier seeks transfer of detention

CEBU, Philippines - The military officer who shot dead his senior inside Camp Lapu-Lapu in Barangay Apas the other day wants to be detained inside the military headquarters instead of in the police detention cell.

Attorney Rameses Villagonzalo, legal counsel of Corporal Jesusito Bayang, also said it should be the Ombudsman Military that should be the one to conduct an investigation against his client for shooting to death Staff Sergeant Romeo Mendez.

Villagonzalo revealed that inquest prosecutor Alexander Acosta had already granted them the waiver of detention and they were given until September 11 to file a counter-affidavit.

In an interview with The FREEMAN, he emphasized it should be the Ombudsman Military that will conduct the preliminary investigation and not the police because the incident is service-connected and took place inside the camp itself.

The lawyer said that Bayang should not be charged for murder because he only did the incident as a self defense as he is smaller compared to Mendez and he is also severely injured on his right sheen due to a previous encounter with NPAs.

“Hopefully, muatras na lang ang pikas kampo ug mubayad na lang mi sa mga angay bayaran kay luoy man gud pud ang akong kliyente kay buotan man gud pud ni siya. Pero ug mupadayon ug kiha ang asawa ni Mendez, katungod pud na niya,” Villagonzalo said.

Bayang, 32, reportedly shot Mendez, 42, dead at the mess hall of the 7th Finance Service Unit of the Philippine Army after a heated argument when Bayang got irked when Mendez rudely wake them up.

Mendez’s wife, Jane, who is nine month pregnant of their sixth child, said during an interview at the Camp Lapu-Lapu’s mortuary that she could not believe Bayang killed her husband as the two were already friends for a long time.

In fact, she said, the last time she went to Cebu to visit Mendez in September last year, it was Bayang who drove for Mendez towards the port to fetch her.

She said that her husband was good man and even helped his neighbors in Bohol to get a job at the camp. She believed her husband was naughty sometimes but she strongly believed he do not physically hurt people the reason why she was surprised of the incident.

“Kung unsa man gani ‘tong iya kasuko sa akong bana, gipiangan lang unta ‘to niya sa tiil, gipusil lang unta sa tiil, gibinlan pa unta niya sa kinabuhi para magkauban pa mi. Daghan among anak, mag-unsa na lang ko?” Jane asked.

She said that in his almost on his 20 years in service, her husband has get assigned as a non-combatant officer in the year 2000 because she feared that he might get killed during the battle. “Bisan diay og sa opisina ra i-assign, dili diay gihapon safe.”

Asked if she bears an ill feeling against Bayang following the incident, Jane could only cry saying, “Naglibog pa ko karon.Ang akong gi-huna-huna kung unsaon nako pagbuhi sa akong mga anak, kung mapa-skwela pa ba nako sila.”

The couple has five children ages 15, 13, 12, 8, and four. Jane will soon give birth to their sixth child. — Niña G. Sumacot/WAB   (FREEMAN NEWS)