Tomas ‘not surprised’ by Dumpit’s alleged involvement in illegal drugs

OSMEÑA. CDN photo/ Junjie Mendoza

CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña remains a friend to his former close-in aide who was killed in an anti-drugs operation on Wednesday.

He will provide financial and burial assistance to SPO1 Adonis Dumpit and his family despite the allegation that the once bemedaled policeman was a big-time supplier of illegal drugs in Bohol.

The funds, he said, would come from his own pocket in order to give Dumpit a decent burial.

“I really feel bad, the whole family (Osmeña) feels bad about this. I told (Cebu City Councilor) Dave Tumulak to take care of whatever, everything.

Lungon, tanan. (Coffin and all). Let him rest in peace, and we will give him a dignified burial,” he said.

“What saddens me (is that) Dumpit was my best policeman when he was serving me,” he added.

But the mayor admitted that he was not surprised by Dumpit’s alleged link to illegal drugs.

“I’ve heard reports that he’s doing a sideline in Bohol, but I did not ask for the details. I’ve been out of touch with him,” said Osmeña.

But Osmeña maintained that Dumpit was not involved in the illegal drugs trade when the policeman was working closely with the mayor.

“Dumpit definitely served me well, and definitely he was not involved in illegal drugs when he was here,” he added.

Dumpit, a known sharpshooter who was assigned at the Special Weapons and Tactics in Cebu City, had been a close-in aide of the mayor until he was convicted in 2014 for killing a 17-year-old suspected robber.

He was released in 2016 after the Court of Appeals allowed him to post bail pending appeal of his case due to his good behavior while inside the Leyte Regional Prison in Abuyog town, Southern Leyte.

When he returned to Cebu, Osmeña asked Dumpit to control the drug situation in Barangay Ermita when its seven officials, including former Ermita Barangay Captain Felicisimo “Imok” Rupinta, were meted with a preventive suspension by the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas in 2017.

But Dumpit was assigned in Bohol.

Osmeña said he would rather give both Dumpit and the operatives from the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI -7) the benefit of the doubt.

He said the NBI-7 team that killed Dumpit was headed by lawyer Rennan Oliva who, the mayor said, was not capable of framing the policeman.

“He (Oliva) doesn’t have that kind of reputation. We will just wait and see (on the outcome of the investigation). And I wish I could comment more. I can only speculate, and it’s not fair,” he added.

Osmeña, however, wondered that if Dumpit was a big-time drug coddler and courier, how come the policeman had asked for financial assistance from Tumulak.

“If he was a level two drug lord, why he was asking financial assistance? It doesn’t make sense. Maybe he was trying to fool Dave Tumulak but I don’t think so. Why would he fool Dave Tumulak?” he asked.

The fallen policeman would be brought back to Cebu, according to his ex-wife, Josephine.

The mayor also shrugged off insinuations that he too might be involved in illegal drugs following Dumpit’s fall.

“I don’t care. But I never got involved in drugs. What overwhelms me right now is that I’m sad for Adonis,” Osmeña said.