BACOLOD City – Seven members of the Bacolod City Police Office’s Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT) were placed under restriction.
The SWAT members were involved in a shootout in Barangay Sum-Ag where three persons were killed and three others were wounded two months ago.
Atty. Joseph Celis, regional director of the National Police Commission (Napolcom), said the SWAT members will remain so pending results of an ongoing investigation.
Celis, in his letter to Task Force Kasanag national commander John Chiong, said placing the police officers under restriction will ensure an “impartial” probe.
A copy of the letter was furnished to the media yesterday. The names of the SWAT members were withheld pending probe findings.
Chiong, head of the private group that seeks maintaining peace and order in the country in partnership with the government, has requested the Napolcom to conduct an independent investigation into the shootout “in the name of justice and transparency.”
The Aug. 10 incident happened at Sum-ag National High School. The fatalities include two robbery suspects and a trisikad driver. Those injured were three bystanders including the daughter of Isabela, Negros Occidental mayor Joselito Malabor.
“If the police officers were well-trained and the operation was well-planned, the innocent civilians must have been secured,” said Chiong.
Eyewitnesses told reports in August that the SWAT members fired their M16 rifles at the robbery suspects the police identified as the 24-year-old Ryan Alib and 30-year-old Armel Espadon – both residents of Murcia, Negros Occidental.
Alib and Espadon were armed with .38-caliber firearms.
The 70-year-old trisikad driver Delfin Ortiz was believed to have been hit by a stray bullet./PN
