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ZAMBOANGA
CITY—Two
senior policemen were shot and killed while they were
jogging on Wednesday morning on an airstrip near a
military base in Sulu, where the offensive against the
al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf continues.
The fatalities were Senior Police
Officer 4 Alih Abam, 42, a section chief, and SPO2
Hussein Sangkula, 45, both assigned to the Jolo Police
Block 1 Precinct.
Initial reports reaching the Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police command
disclosed that Abam and Sangkula were jogging at about
5:15 a.m. along the Jolo Airport runway when two
unidentified gunmen appeared and shot the victims.
The runway of Jolo Airport, which is
located near the Army’s 104th Infantry Brigade
headquarters, serves as a jogging and physical-fitness
area for residents of Jolo, the capital town of Sulu.
Jolo policemen who rushed to the crime
scene recovered empty shells from a .45-caliber pistol.
Abam was shot in the head, while Sangkula was hit in the
chest.
Chief Supt. Joel Goltiao, ARMM police
commander, said that investigators have yet to identify
the assailants.
“Investigators don’t have any suspects
yet on the incident. I’m still waiting for the progress
report of the investigation,” he added.
Goltiao downplayed the possibility that
the killing was the handiwork of the Abu Sayyaf bandits
because the scene of the crime is near an Army camp.
He said there is a possibility that the
cause of the incident was rido, or family war.
The Sulu provincial police office
reported that there were some other people on an
early-morning jog at the scene of the incident, but none
of them is willing to give a statement.
Meanwhile, the main suspect in the
killing of a policeman in Mandaue City on Sunday has
been arrested. The 24-year-old suspect admitted to the
crime, but accused the policeman he allegedly killed of
“ruining my life.”
The suspect, Lauro Lumapas, told
reporters that SPO1 Pedro Sucion, the 50-year-old
policeman he allegedly shot, planted drugs on him that
sent him to Muntinlupa when he was still 16 years old.
Fate led them to each other at the
Mandaue City reclamation
area just before dawn on Sunday.
Lumapas was arrested in Cebu City on
Tuesday. He claimed to have no knowledge of the
whereabouts of his two companions last Sunday.
Sucion and his partner, Police Officer 2
Darius Conejos, were on routine patrol at the
reclamation area near the Cebu International Convention
Center when they responded to a gun- shot nearby.
As the two policemen approached, three
men who were trying to board a tricycle fired at them
and hit them.
As Sucion lay prostrate on the ground,
Lumapas said he went to the policeman and finished him
off. Conejos, who managed to crawl away, was left alone.
Lumapas said they just finished robbing
a taxi driver and were on their way to escape when the
two policemen arrived. He said he fired the gun to scare
the taxi driver.
Sucion’s death prompted Mandaue City
officials to commit to buy street lights, equipment and
even vehicles for their policemen. The
opposition-dominated city council has since blocked the
plan of Mayor Jonas Cortes to lease vehicles for the
policemen.
Senior Supt. Rodel Calungsud, Mandaue
City police chief, said the police will file murder,
frustrated murder and robbery charges against Lumapas.
--With
W. Rodolfo
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