Cop, civilian cohort in murder of cop arrested

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A policeman, who had confessed to having killed, along with an accomplice, a colleague in the police service on Wednesday, July 1, in Barangay Tickwas in Dumalinao, Zamboanga del Sur, is now detained.

The suspect-policeman whose name officials of the Police Regional Office 9 withheld surrendered to ranking police officials in Zamboanga del Sur province on Thursday.

Radio reports on Friday quoted officials of PRO-9 as saying that he voluntarily admitted his involvement in the fatal shooting of Corporal Armejo Jornadal, of the 2nd Zamboanga del Sur Provincial Mobile Force Company, at a stretch of a highway in Purok Lapu-Lapu in Barangay Tickwas in Dumalinao.

With his help, his male civilian cohort was arrested in a subsequent police operation at dusk Thursday in Barangay Poblacion in Margosatubig, Zamboanga del Sur.

Police officials and local executives in Margosatubig and Dumalinao separately told reporters that Jornadal was riding his motorcycle on his way to Guipos town in Zamboanga del Sur, when he was attacked by the duo together riding a motorcycle too, trailing behind.

It was the suspect-policeman who was driving the motorcycle used in the attack, according to local executives.

Radio reports said the suspect-policemen, whom officials and local executives said would be prosecuted for murder, had told investigators and intelligence operatives from different PRO 9 units that it was his civilian companion, then seated behind him, who repeatedly shot Jornadal from behind, killing him instantly.

They took Jornadal’s sling bag and Canik 9 millimeter service pistol before they motored away. The pistol was found by policemen in the house of the civilian suspect in one of the barangays in Margosatubig.

Text messages are circulating in Dumalinao and Margosatubig hinting that the suspect-policemen had borrowed a big amount of money from Jornadal, who had repeatedly asked him to settle during their heated arguments prior to the incident.