Valera’s family was having difficulty finding a place him after being told that there was no more room at the Manila North Cemetery. Ironically, the city government and the Manila Police District plan to accord Valera a hero’s funeral.
A furious Mayor Lito Atienza immediately ordered the city health department’s chief, Dr. Jose Baranda, to assist Valera’s family after reading about their predicament in The STAR.
"I was also personally tasked by Mayor Atienza to investigate the refusal of some city hall personnel to accommodate the burial of the cop at the Manila North Cemetery," Baranda told The STAR over the phone. He oversees the maintenance and operation of Manila’s four main cemeteries.
Atienza’s order was a welcome relief to Valera’s family and colleagues.
"I was informed by the family that they prefer to bury Valera at the South Cemetery due to its proximity to their home," said Chief Inspector Dominador Arevalo Jr., Valera’s immediate superior.
Atienza has also offered a P100,000 reward for information leading to Valera’s killers.
Manila Police District acting director Senior Superintendent Danilo Abarzosa has formed a task force of investigators, dubbed "Task Force Valera," to go after the killers.
One of the teams, headed by Arevalo, is now said to be close to apprehending one of the assailants. Abarzosa said Valera will be interred on Thursday with full honors.
Last Wednesday, Valera was patrolling the southbound lane of Taft Avenue when he heard successive gunshots at around 1 p.m.
He rushed to the scene and found that a gunman and an accomplice on board a motorcycle had ambushed money exchange dealer Leoncio Bernardo, who was then in the driver‘s seat of a Toyota Corolla.
Valera exchanged fire with the gunman, but four more gunmen riding in tandem on two motorcycles joined in the firefight. When it was over, a bloodied Valera was slumped on the pavement. He was rushed to the Philippine General Hospital but died along the way from a gunshot wound in the right side of the body.
Responding policemen failed to catch up with the suspects who sped away towards the direction of Ayala Bridge.
Sheilon Apo, 27, a seaman from Imus, Cavite, took a stray bullet in the chest while on board a passenger bus. He is currently recuperating at the Manila Doctors Hospital.
Valera was one of several plainclothes police officers deployed along Taft Avenue to go after muggers, snatchers and robbers to thwart an anticipated upsurge of crime during the holidays. – Nestor Etolle