Luga orders probe on billard hall owner’s death

Central Police District Chief Victor Luga yesterday ordered the CPD-Crimninal Investigation Unit to investigate the incident Wednesday where an allegedly handcuffed billiard hall owner was shot by police in Baesa, Quezon City and died in the hospital.

Luga ordered Senior Inspector Rodolfo Jaraza, chief of the CPD-CIU, to investigate whether the operation conducted by operatives of CPD Station 3-Sangandaan against Jeremias Pineda Jr., alias Armstrong, in Sitio Mendez, Baesa, Quezon City was legitimate.

He also ordered the CPD-CIU to look into claims of the victim’s relatives that the police violated the rules of engagement when Pineda was arrested.

The victim was arrested for guntoting last Sunday. One Ronaldo Vila had filed a complaint of attempted homicide against the suspect with the police.

During the Wednesday operation to arrest the victim, he was shot in the left hand, left knee and right thigh. The victim was rushed to the Quezon City General Hospital but died while undergoing treatment.

Superintendent Isaac Farol, CPD Station 3 commander, defended his men’s operation last Wednesday to arrest Pineda, saying it was legitimate.

He disclosed that the operation was conducted not only on the complaint of Vila. Residents in Sitio Mendez, Baesa, had also filed complaints against the victim for wanton display of firearms and indiscriminate firing in their barangay on several occasions.

It was during the arrest of Pineda that operatives allegedly shot the victim while handcuffed.

Relatives of the victim allegedly have in their possession a videotape showing that arresting cops PO1 Bualbertu Abu, PO2 Gerry Villamayor and PO1 Pablo Basmayor shot the victim.

Farol told The STAR that only the victim’s right hand was handcuffed. He drew a handgun from the back of his waist using his left hand.

The police officer admitted that some of the arresting officers were in civilian clothes because the victim had eluded arrest in the past after he had been tipped off by the presence of uniformed men.

He defended his men who conducted the operation against Pineda, noting that they could have followed the normal procedure and brought him straight to the police station after his arrest but the operatives rushed him to the hospital for treatment.

He revealed that the victim was also a member of the Edwin Ballad gang which is a notorious holdup gang operating in Balintawak and Quezon City. The police were gathering records of the victim whose involvement with the gang began way back in 1993.

Pineda was allegedly hired by Digna Catriz, former land administrator of the Araneta clan, to threaten squatters into leaving the lands owned by the family in Sitio Mendez and Sitio Pajo also in Baesa.

Catriz allegedly enriched herself while serving as administrator of the Araneta lands. She later put up her own business and became the live-in partner of the victim after the death of her husband.

Farol cried foul yesterday over the airing on TV of footage showing him laughing and made to look as his reaction to the shooting. He said that footage was taken without his knowledge while he was bantering with the TV crew.