CEBU, Philippines - A policeman and two men were killed, while two policemen were injured and two other men arrested after a shootout between the policemen and a group of armed men past 7 p.m. Wednesday in Sitio Buyo, Barangay Binongkalan, Catmon town.
Police Officer 2 Dionesio Jurbina, 54, Catmon Police Station alert team operative, was declared dead on arrival at the Cebu Provincial Hospital-Danao City; while Senior Police Officer 2 Rex Menchavez, 54; and Police Officer 2 Aaron Benjamin Arizo, 35; had to be transferred to a hospital in Cebu City for treatment.
Also killed were Lito Gumolon, 53, of Lawaan, Talisay City; and King Siroy Porgatorio Lusifer, 41, of Candabong, Argao. Both are members of Pistalis Organization, a breakaway group of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association.
Andrew “Kuya Manong” Ocasla, 44, a native of Negros Occidental and Tomas Bracero, 27, of San Roque, Sogod, were arrested by the police a few meters away from the place of the shootout.
Senior Inspector Roberto Hugo, Catmon Police Station chief, said before the incident Police Officer 3 Ben Navales received a message from a concerned citizen about a group of suspicious men in Sitio Buyo, Barangay Binongkalan.
Barangay Captain Marlon Rule, of Panalipan, Catmon, said that the armed persons were first spotted by the residents around 5 p.m. Wednesday but they were still there two hours later.
Menchavez, Jurbina and Arizo went to the area in their patrol car to verify the report. Rule said residents told him that the patrol car passed by the place where the armed men were standing and made a U-turn meters away to park nearby. As soon as Jurbina approached one of the men standing by the road the man seemed to pull something from his bag so Jurbina grabbed him while Menchavez and Aron assisted in restraining the man.
Suddenly a gunshot rang out and Jurbina fell, shot in the back of the head above his right ear by another man hiding in the bushes.
“Kaning si Jurbina gikuptan ni niya ang bag sa lalaki kay milugnot man tua didto iyang armas, pero wa siya kabantay naa diay laki nagpahipi sa kasagbotan mao to’y nipusil niya,” Rule said.
Menchavez and Arizo dropped down and a shootout ensued. Both of them ended up wounded but still managed to ask for backup.
Operatives from the Catmon, Sogod and Carmen police stations, as well as the Danao City Police Station Special Weapons and Tactics team, rushed to the area.
Senior Police Officer 2 Wenceslao Salimbangon said when they arrived at the area they saw Ocasla riding his motorcycle so he was flagged down and frisked. Police said they found a hand grenade on him. Bracero, believed to be the lookout of the group, was arrested after he tried to avoid a checkpoint and the police confiscated three small packs of suspected shabu from him.
Police also recovered a .45 cal. pistol from each of the two dead men at the scene of the shootout.
The responding policemen took all those who had been shot to the hospital but Jurbina, Gumolon and Lusifer were declared dead on arrival.
The arrested suspects were brought to the police station and were detained. Hugo theorized the suspects were planning to rob a businessman who lives about 50 meters from where the shootout occurred.
“Dako og posibilidad nga tulisan siya napakgang sa kapolisan nisukol lang g’yud,” Hugo said.
Ocasla admitted he knew the two dead suspects but claimed he did not know what they were doing there and why they were armed. He also said the grenade was not his, claiming he was only flagged down by the police while he was driving his motorcycle to Carmen to buy a pack of milk.
“Gipara ko sa polis, gibilin ko sa tanod, gibiyaan ko sa tanod, kung daotan pa ko nga tawo nidagan na ko. Nagpabilin ko kay wa man ko’y dautan nga binuhatan,” Ocasla said.
He said that he is in Catmon town to fulfill his mission of healing people. Whoever comes to him and asks for help will be treated, he says.
He also said that he is the president of Pistalis Organization and most of his members were former PBMA members but they still acknowledge the authority of PBMA Supreme Master Ruben Ecleo Jr.
He added that not in his wildest imagination could he have envisioned his members committing crime.
Bracero said that he did not know the two who were killed and said he was puzzled why he was implicated in the crime. Hugo said that the group fits the description of the suspects of a recent robbery. — /BRP (FREEMAN)