CEBU CITY – All members of a police unit of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) were relieved after figuring in what was claimed as a misencounter with a policeman last Wednesday.
At least 18 operatives of the Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB), including its chief Police Major Alejandro Batobalonos, are facing investigation following the death of Police Corporal Feliciano Yballe Jr., an operative of the Cebu City Mobile Force Company.
Police Brig. Gen. Debold Sinas, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas, said it was PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde who ordered the relief of the 18 policemen and that “impartial investigation must be conducted.”
Sinas said what happened around 1 a.m. last Wednesday at the house of Yballe in Barangay Sinsin was a misencounter contrary to some reports that the policeman was the target of a police operation for his alleged involvement in the killing of another policeman.
Sinas corrected a newspaper report quoting Batobalonos as saying that Yballe was the subject of the operation conducted by PIB operatives. “He (Batobalonos) told me that he did no issue such statement,” Sinas said.
Sinas said PIB operatives had gone to Sinsin after receiving a report that the assailant of Master Sgt. Junard Cinco was hiding in the area.
Cinco was killed last Tuesday while driving a motorcycle in Barangay Media Once, Toledo City.
Police said the killing of Cinco was a form of retaliation by a drug syndicate as he was the one who conducted the surveillance on Gerly Luwagi, who was killed in a police operation last Monday in Minglanilla town, southern Cebu.
Sinas said the PIB operatives, upon learning that killers of Cinco were in Sinsin, looked for someone who can guide them. “The CPPO team learned that Yballe was living in Sinsin. So they went to his house to seek assistance since he was familiar with the place,” said Sinas.
Sinas said the presence of armed men outside Yballe’s house may have alarmed the policeman. “Yballe at the time was a bit paranoid due to the series of death threats from drug lords and some local officials had been raising funds for his death. According to his live-in partner, several drug lords wanted him dead,” said Sinas.
Yballe doubted that the armed men who arrived in his house were policemen since they were in civilian clothes. “He also didn’t recognize any of the policemen,” said Sinas.
According to Police Col. Manuel Abrugena, chief of CPPO, the first shot came from inside the house. “The shot that was fired inside the house triggered the shootout. When the team leader of the CPPO team, ordered a ceasefire, a wounded Yballe was found inside the house,” Sinas said.
Yballe, who suffered gunshot wounds in the body, was taken to the Cebu City Medical Center where he was declared dead.
The PIB operatives insisted that they had no intentions of killing Yballe when they went to his house, Sinas said.
The firearms of the relieved policemen were subjected to ballistic test. The policemen involved were also made to under paraffin and drug tests. “The tests are just procedural. We do this to clear any doubts,” Sinas said. (Calvin Cordova)