Isabela police chief loses post over gun duel of 2 subordinates

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Two policemen who shot it out with each other in a police station in Isabela last Saturday now face administrative sanctions even as they are still recuperating from gunshot wounds.

Meanwhile, Inspector Reynaldo Maggay, police chief of San Agustin town, was temporarily relieved of his post pending investigation into the shooting incident involving two of his men, SPO4 Genaro Marquez and SPO1 Melchor Rumbaoa.

Senior Superintendent Franklin Mabanag, Isabela police director, said administrative charges are now being readied against Marquez and Rumbaoa, who shot each other while taking their dinner in the mess hall of the San Agustin police station.

Marquez and Rumbaoa are still recuperating from bullet wounds at the Cagayan Valley Adventist Hospital in Santiago City.

“We are still investigating the actual cause of the quarrel but initial reports indicated that it seemed to have something to do with (their station’s) operations,” Mabanag said.

Marquez was the deputy police chief, and Rumbaoa, the administrative officer.

Mabanag said Maggay is under preventive suspension while the investigation is ongoing to see if he had been remiss of his duties, and to remove any suspicion that he might influence the results of the probe.

“Although he was out of his area at the time, (Maggay) had previously asked my permission before going to Manila for an important appointment, and left the management of the station to the two. If it is proven that he had nothing to do with the incident, he will be returned to his area,” Mabanag said.

The incident involving policemen was the second to happen in the region in a couple of months.

Last Christmas Day, PO3 Roberto Discipulo, assigned to Aritao town in Nueva Vizcaya, shot dead PO3 Edwin Marabut and wounded another colleague in their patrol car after he was roused from sleep as he thought that he was being kidnapped.

The three policemen, it turned out, had had a quarrel in a drinking spree before they responded to a stabbing incident in a nearby village.

Discipulo is now locked up in the provincial jail while facing summary dismissal proceedings and criminal charges.