Police Staff Sergeant Alfredo Pagaling was shot dead by still unidentified assailants on Saturday, August 31. | Contributed photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The fleeing gunmen in the shooting incident an hour before in Talisay City are the suspects in the drive-by shooting in the neighboring town of Minglanilla where a police officer was killed at dawn Saturday, August 31.
Police Colonel Roderick Mariano, Cebu Provincial Police Office chief, said that a security camera of the convenience store where Police Staff Sergeant Alfredo Pagaling of the Minglanilla Police Station was shot showed that the shooters were the fleeing suspects, who were involved in a shooting in Talisay City an hour before.
Mariano was referring to a shooting in Talisay City an hour before Pagaling was killed, which resulted in a person being wounded in the attack.
Mariano said that the same description from Talisay City incident matched with the suspects in CCTV footage they had secured during the time the police officers were fired upon along National Road of Barangay Lipata, Minglanilla town, in southern Cebu, at 2:50 a.m.
“Siguro tong motor na nagmamadali akala nya siguro na alarma na sya dun from Talisay so inunahan na nya,” said Mariano.
(Maybe, the suspects riding the motorcycle thought that the police in neighboring towns have already received the alarm of the shooting incident in Talisay they decided to shoot first at the police officers they saw in Minglanilla.)
The shooting also ended Pagaling’s dream to enjoy his early retirement.
Pagaling, 52, was in the process of availing of an early retirement, when he was killed in the shooting incident.
Investigation showed that Pagaling and Villasurda were standing by inside their patrol car at a convenience store along the national highway in Barangay Lipata when they were fired upon by two men on a speeding motorcycle heading towards Naga City.
Villasurda upon hearing the gunshots went outside the patrol car to check where the shots came from.
When he observed that there was no commotion in the area, he went back inside the vehicle and saw a bloodied Pagaling with a gunshot wound in the head.
Villasurda then sought help and emergency responders arrived later and brought Pagaling to the hospital where he died at 4:50 a.m.
According to the police, that the bullet entered the back of the head and exiting at this temple.
Police conducted checkpoints to catch the culprits but they failed to catch them.
Mariano also said that the Talisay City police should have sent out an alarm to other police stations in the nearby towns when shootings involving motorcycle-riding gunmen should happen.
He said the Talisay City police did not do this which was his previous instruction to police station commanders to send out an alarm to nearby towns when shooting incidents involving motorcycle-riding gunmen should happen.
Meanwhile, Police Staff Sergeant Rustom Elorde of the Minglanilla Police Station, said that Pagaling had been his colleague for six years and agreed that the Pagaling’s shooting was not done by a person with a personal grudge against the police officer.
Elorde said that Pagaling had no known enemies and was a person who never complained about his work or with someone from work.
“Kugihan ni sya sa trabaho, dili gyud ni sya mo absent ug walay valid reason,” said Elorde.
(He is hardworking and was never absent from work unless it is a valid reason.)
Mariano, for his part, said that they were conducting a hot-pursuit operation against the still unidentified assailants, who were last seen heading to Naga City./dbs