A FORMER policeman was killed in a shootout with police who tried to serve a search warrant in his house in Barangay Luray, Toledo City, midwest Cebu last Tuesday night.
Terry Tabulado allegedly fired at operatives of the Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB) as they approached his house, said Supt. Rodolfo Albotra, chief of PIB.
“Our personnel only shot back. He might have been high on drugs and we didn’t want to risk the lives of our policemen knowing that he was armed,” said Supt. Albotra.
Tabulado was rushed to the Toledo District Hospital but he did not make it alive.
Police were about to raid the house on the strength of a search warrant issued by Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Jerry Dicdican of Branch 25 in Cebu City.
Supt. Albotra said Tabulado was using shabu when police arrived.
Tabulado held a rank of police officer 3 before he was dismissed from service on Dec. 14, 2014 for absence without leave (AWOL).
Police said they seized from the former policeman’s possession a Mustang pistol, eight bullets for a .45 caliber, four empty shells, several packs of suspected shabu and a grenade.
Supt. Albotra said they had received reports about the man’s alleged involvement in illegal drug activities while he was still in the police service.
“In a way he would identify himself as a police to arrest drug personalities in the town but for money and drugs purposes. He used the authority as police to cater to his vices,” he said.
In a separate interview, SPO2 Reynaldo Solante said the man’s sister, a nun based in Luzon, had approached the PIB to help the family address Tabulado’s rowdy behavior.
Police said there were several instances that he caused fear in the neighborhood after he was seen brandishing a gun and grenade. Tabulado joined the police force in 2004. He was first assigned in Caraga region before he was transferred to the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas in September 2012.