ILOILO City – A string of drug-related incidents rocked Iloilo after the visit of President Rodrigo Duterte on June 20.
The latest involved a policeman who was also a drug suspect.
On June 24, unidentified armed men attacked Barangay Captain Remia Prevendido Gregori of Bakhaw, Mandurriao district. She was a sister of slain drug lord Richard Prevendido.
Two days after, 35-year-old drug suspect Police Officer 1 Dorben Acap, assigned at the Regional Headquarters Support Group of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) in Camp Delgado, was shot in Arevalo district.
A day before the Arevalo shooting, two brothers of another slain drug lord, Melvin Odicta Sr., were arrested – Barangay Captain Noel Odicta and Jerry – in a police operation for illegal guns.
A brother-in-law of the Odictas, drug suspect Andrew Altas, was shot for resisting the police. He died.
BAFFLING
Tuesday’s shooting of Acap flustered the PRO-6. A person of interest in the incident is a policeman currently assigned at the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Police Officer 2 Melvin Mocorro.
What was Mocorro doing in Iloilo?
“Gusto ko thorough investigation ang gagawin,” said Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, regional police director.
Bulalacao, formerly the spokesperson of the Philippine National Police based in Camp Crame, previously disclosed he had a short talk with Duterte on June 20. He said the President ordered him to strengthen the campaign against illegal drugs in Western Visayas.
Acap, nephew of Iloilo City councilor Lyndon Acap, was classified a high-value drug target by the Iloilo City Police Office.
This was why he was detailed at the Regional Headquarters Support Group, said Bulalacao.
Acap is a nephew of father and son drug suspects Marque Acap. Sr. and Marque Jr. currently detained at the Iloilo District Jail in Barangay Nanga, Pototan, Iloilo.
He was formerly a member of the city police’s anti-illegal drug team and the regional police’s anti-illegal drug task force.
But who is Mocorro?
His present assignment is at the Regional Public Safety Battalion of the police in the ARMM.
Mocorro was a native of Bacolod City and was under the PRO-6 until last year, according to Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, director of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO).
Tayaba said he knew Mocorro as far back as 2005 when the former headed the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Negros Occidental.
Tayaba described Mocorro as “hard working” and “dedicated.”
Last year, Mocorro bagged a merit medal award as part of the police team that arrested a long-wanted murder suspect in December, said Tayaba.
After receiving the award, Mocorro was reassigned to the ARMM.
BULALACAO ASKS WHY
Acap was shot at around 4:45 p.m. while driving his red Honda Civic car in Barangay Dulonan, Arevalo.
He was hit on the left shoulder but managed to fire back at his attackers – two men on a motorcycle – and hit one of them.
Acap proceeded to The Medical City hospital for treatment.
Several minutes after, a wounded patient was brought to the Western Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao district. It was Mocorro with gunshot wounds on his right side and right leg.
According to the hospital, Mocorro claimed he was shot in nearby Barangay Pakiad, Oton, Iloilo.
But policemen who checked Mocorro’s claim found out that no such shooting happened in Barangay Pakiad.
Mocorro was eventually transferred to the Iloilo Mission Hospital.
“I want to know what forced them to shoot each other,” said Bulalacao.
He tasked Tayaba and to Iloilo City police director Senior Superintendent Henry Biñas to lead probe
Mocorro faced an administrative case years ago following a search on the house of businessman Elias Bilbao in Guimbal, Iloilo, according to Atty. Hector Teodosio in a radio interview.
The subject died in that operation, said Teodosio.
The lawyer said Mocorro was part of the CIDG and a team of the Special Action Force that carried out the search.
Some policemen in this case were suspended while others got a rank demotion as penalty, said Teodosio.
He was disappointed with the outcome of the case, according to Teodosio, and he had no idea what happened to Mocorro since then.
Acap, meanwhile, joined the Philippine National Police in 2007 and his first assignment was at the Regional Public Safety Battalion.
He also had stints at the Iloilo City Police Office headquarters, Arevalo police station, IPPO headquarters, and police station in Miag-ao, Iloilo.
“The PRO-6 would like to assure the public that we are doing our best to have a fair and fast investigation. Once we have the evidence, appropriate charges will be filed. At this time, we encourage everyone to take part in the prevention and solution of crimes by sharing information to the police,” said Bulalacao./PN
