CDN PHOTO / LITO TECSON
A MAN of few words, SPO1 Adonis Dumpit was not the type to court the spotlight or even start a little conversation. Yet the mere mention of his name was enough to get many people talking.
The tough cop made waves for purging Cebu City of criminals with the full support of Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
After his graduation, Dumpit was first assigned in Bohol for several years before his assignment to Cebu City in 1999.
He got acquainted with Osmeña when he was detailed at the Cebu City Hall to become the mayor’s police escort for several years.
It was during this time that Osmeña formed “Hunter Team”, a group of elite cops and sharp shooters headed by Dumpit which was dreaded by criminals.
But behind the infamy of being tagged responsible for hunting down dozens of criminals as head of the ‘90s crime-busting group, who was Dumpit?
Crime buster
More than a decade ago, Dumpit made headlines for shooting to death 17-year-old crime suspect Ronron Go in 2004.
For Go’s death, Dumpit was convicted by the Cebu Regional Trial Court for homicide in August 2014 from the original charge of murder.
With Dumpit, controversy was never scarce as he was tagged in the deaths of three crime suspects and the wounding of a dozen others in the late nineties.
His colorful past preceded him; but behind the name, Dumpit was a quiet and serious man who was also a father and a son.
Born on May 13, 1963 to Napoleon and Liwayway Dumpit along Bonifacio Street in Davao City, he was the eighth of 10 children.
A dutiful son, Dumpit visited his 84-year-old mother right after his release from prison in May 2016, before reporting back for work.
According to Dumpit, his relationship with his siblings was no different from others.
“Okay ra man, wala ra man mi problema sa akong mga igsuon (We’re okay, we don’t have a problem),” said Dumpit in a talk with Cebu Daily News in November 2016.
Originally from La Union in Ilocos Region, Dumpit’s grandfather was a Philippine Military Academy (PMA) graduate who was assigned in Davao City and eventually settled there after marriage.
Like many Filipino mothers who saw their sons as seafarers traveling the world, Dumpit said his mother wanted him to take up a nautical course.
But he insisted on taking up criminology.
An alumnus of the University of the Visayas, Dumpit said that he would have enrolled in PMA just like his grandfather, but his being flat-footed nicked any chance of admission into PMA.
Dumpit married in 1994 and had a son on the same year.
But his relationship with his wife failed and by 2008, the marriage was annulled.
New life
For the killing of Go, Dumpit was detained at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) for four years and two months while his homicide case was pending.
In May 2011, he was transferred to the Leyte Regional Prison in Abuyog town, Southern Leyte.
In May 2016, Dumpit’s petition for bail was granted by the Court of Appeals 20th Division in Cebu City. The court noted that the cop had actually served out his minimum prison term of six years and exhibited good behavior during his incarceration.
Bail was set at P250,000
It was Osmeña who paid Dumpit’s P250,000 bail. As soon as Dumpit was released, Osmeña had his son, Miguel, fetch his most trusted cop from jail.
Dumpit was relatively tight-lipped about his time behind bars except to say that not everyone in prison was guilty of the crimes they were accused of.
Though raised a Catholic, Dumpit said that he was not the religious type and only learned to pray the rosary in prison.
It was not unusual for prisoners to turn to God while in jail as He is the only one they could call to in a place as desolate as one behind bars, he said.
With retirement in the near horizon, Dumpit preferred to keep his life private this time around and was bashful when asked about his future plans.
“Wala ra man. Ang ingon bitaw ni Kim Atienza, ang buhay ay weather-weather lang,” he said. /CDN archive