Market shootings kill 1, injure 1

CEBU, Philippines - A family driver was killed for allegedly trying to engage in a shootout with a policeman at the Taboan Public Market yesterday dawn.

Marvelon Villanueva, 37, a native of Pook Aguinaldo, UP Campus-Diliman, Quezon City was shot dead by PO2 Michael Baylon, 30, a member of the Special Weapons and Tactics assigned at the Motorcycle Response Unit.

Villanueva was reportedly drunk and was indiscriminately firing his caliber .38 revolver at 1:00 a.m. yesterday prompting a certain Sonny, resident in the area to call for police assistance. Baylon and his buddy, PO2 Nemesio Paragsa, were the first to respond.

The two motorcycle cops intercepted Villanueva along Panganiban Street and tried to arrest him. However, when Baylon and Paragsa introduced themselves as policemen, Villanueva pulled out his gun and tried to shoot at the law enforcers. Baylon shot Villanueva using his M1 rifle supposedly to neutralize him but he was instead hit in the chest and in his back.

Paramedics from the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation arrived to assess the victim but the latter was already dead before he was brought to the hospital.

Police recovered the gun allegedly used by the victim and his wallet. The wallet contains a driver’s license bearing the victim’s name and other assorted documents.

Cebu City Police Office director Melvin Ramon Buenafe immediately defended his men and said the operation was legitimate.

“Necessary ang pagputok ng baril. Wa na ma’y mahimo kundi pusilon siya (firing a gun was necessary because there was no other option but to fire at him),” Buenafe said.

Asked why the SWAT personnel had to use a high-powered firearm in shooting the victim, Buenafe said police should be equipped with superior firearm when responding to an armed person alarm.

“Because who knows kung unsang armasa ang dala sa suspek, basin bazooka, or bomba, so you have to be equipped with a superior forearm,” he said.

The CCPO director said the police, particularly the SWAT, have resolved to continue to respond to any incidents even with the risk at hands.

Just recently, two SWAT men were relieved form their posts after they were accused of mauling a drunk Papua New Guinean national who reportedly hit a taxi driver in Barangay Banilad.

In another incident, a suspected snatcher is in critical condition after he was shot by two unidentified motorcycle-riding men yesterday afternoon also at the Taboan Public Market.

Vic Michael Fabricante, 23, sustained a gunshot wound in his nape. The bullet exited on the victim’s right face.

Fabricante, a resident of Barangay Sawang Calero, was walking along the road after asking for dried fish from market vendors when two men unidentified attackers suddenly emerged and shot the victim.

Police recovered a toy gun from the victim’s pocket.

SPO1 Ruth Violango of the Homicide Section said Fabricante has records of snatching and extorting dried fish from vendors in the market. —FPL (FREEMAN)