BY HANNAH L. TORREGOZA
Who fired the first shot?
Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa has raised this question even as he challenged the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to dig deeper into the real motive behind the deaths of four soldiers in Jolo, Sulu last June.
The former PNP chief said knowing who fired the first shot during that supposed “misencounter” between the soldiers and police officials could help establish the motive of the killing.
“(It’s) speculation on my part, so to the NBI, sana you can dig further, deeper into the motive of the case,” Dela Rosa told NBI officials investigating the June 29 incident where four Army personnel who were tracking down a suspected suicide bomber were purportedly killed in a firefight with police officials.
However, Dela Rosa pointed out that based on the NBI’s report, none of the army personnel fired a shot at the nine cops allegedly involved in the shooting and were unarmed, while the police officials offered a different version of the story.
“What triggered the first shot? Why was there a firefight? We need to establish the motive?” Dela Rosa said during the Senate hearing on Thursday.
“There were speculations that there were some cops who had a grudge, that’s why they were killed,” he said.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gilbert Gapay supported Dela Rosa’s call saying that based on the report of the NBI, the soldiers did not do anything to provoke a firefight.
“Based on the NBI’s report, there was no provocation on the part of the army personnel. No unlawful aggression,” Gapay said.
“There is element of treachery. So it was a deliberate act, there was really an intent to kill, although we cannot ascertain the motive. But definitely there was an intent to kill,” he added.
That is why, the AFP chief said, the military finds the situation “very unique” and believes there was a cover-up when they read the spot report released by the police.
Gapay, likewise, pressed authorities to expedite the filing of the murder charges, planting of evidence and neglect of duty against the police officials involved in the shooting incident.
He noted it has been two months since the incident happened and yet no case have been filed yet against the cops involved in the shooting.
