Suspect in slay of retired police exec falls

CEBU CITY — The long arm of the law finally caught up last Friday with Oscar Jumamil, the prime suspect in the murder of retired police regional internal affairs chief Andres Sarmiento.

It took police 35 days to track down Jumamil all the way to Cagayan de Oro, where he had sought refuge among relatives.

Jumamil, 37, was arrested by agents of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Division at about 10 a.m. last Friday outside a compound where he had been staying.

A four-man police team, led by Chief Inspector Pablo Labra, arrested Jumamil by virtue of a warrant issued by Cebu Regional Trial Court Judge Galicano Arriesgado earlier this month.

Labra was slightly injured in the hand when Jumamil reportedly struggled to resist arrest before he was eventually subdued.

Jumamil was disarmed of a caliber .22 Magnum revolver which police believe was the same gun he allegedly used in killing Sarmiento last Jan. 12.

Cebu City police chief Ronald Roderos said Jumamil fled to Bohol first before eventually settling in Cagayan de Oro.

"It was an intelligence build-up. We checked and counter-checked all his possible hideouts," he said.

Roderos said an informant from Cagayan de Oro called his office last Tuesday to report that Jumamil was spotted in a residential compound near a public market there.

Roderos immediately directed Labra to take a team and go to Cagayan de Oro to verify the report. The team left Tuesday night.

Jumamil, interviewed on TV following his arrest, said he had been haunted by the ghost of Sarmiento.

"He never let me sleep since then, until now. He kept haunting me. It was like a dream but it seemed so real," Jumamil said in the Cebu dialect.

But Jumamil never categorically admitted killing Sarmiento.

Sarmiento, 57, who returned to private law practice following a long and distinguished stint with the police, had just gotten off his car and was walking into his home shortly before 10 p.m. along Rosal street in Barangay Camputhaw when Jumamil allegedly accosted and shot him.

Jumamil, a neighbor, was allegedly into drugs and suspected Sarmiento of having caused his arrest for a drug-related case in 1992.

Sarmiento, who retired from the police service with an unblemished record only last November, was shot thrice in the head.

He died after six days of fighting for his life at the intensive care unit of the Cebu Doctors Hospital. He never regained consciousness following the shooting.

Sarmiento’s widow, Florenda, told The Freeman she was both happy and relieved upon learning about Jumamil’s arrest. — Freeman News Service