Fallen Manila traffic cop buried, given promotion

Manila, Philippines -  Sirens on about 100 police motorcycles wailed simultaneously and a company of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team members fired their guns in salute as the Manila Police District (MPD) buried a fallen policeman at noon yesterday.

Police Officer 2 Jesus Lapuz, 41, of the MPD-Traffic Management Enforcement Group, who was assigned to escort tourist buses, was riding his patrol motorcycle when he was shot dead by a man on a motorcycle near the Japanese embassy in Pasay City, whom he had chased from Manila.

Lapuz was hit in the different parts of the body and died on the way to hospital.

The MPD said the assailant, who was not wearing a helmet, resembled a man who had robbed a moneychanger in Ermita shortly before Lapuz was killed.

MPD director Chief Superintendent Alejandro Gutierrez led his men in honoring Lapuz, whose remains were brought to the police headquarters for a Mass before it was taken to the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque.

Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, who praised Lapuz for giving “his life above and beyond the call of duty,” also attended the event.

Lapuz was a former security escort of Lim.

Gutierrez said the slain traffic policeman was given commendation and on-the-spot promotion.

As SWAT members rendered a gun salute, Lapuz was laid to rest beside his father, who was also a Manila policeman. Members of the slain policeman’s mother unit, the Traffic Enforcement Bureau, SWAT members and other MPD personnel joined the hearse to the Manila Memorial Park.

Gutierrez said he has instructed his men to conduct a case conference with the Pasay police on Monday to expedite the investigation.

Pasay police investigators, who have jurisdiction over the case, are still coordinating with the United States and Japanese embassies to secure the footage taken by their closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to help identify the man who shot Lapuz.

Reports said that Lapuz tried to accost a man on a motorcycle for a traffic violation in Ermita but the man, instead of yielding, sped off toward Roxas Blvd., prompting the policeman to give chase.

The police officer finally closed in on the suspect in front of the Japanese embassy, but he never realized that he was also being followed by a companion of the suspect who was riding another motorcycle.

When the policeman stopped, one of the suspects shot him. Police said the suspects used a 9mm pistol.

Superintendent Samuel Turla, city deputy police chief, said the CCTV cameras of the Japanese embassy and the US embassy’s Seafront compound may have captured the image of the killer.