Cop who fired rifle in cockpit relieved

The policeman who allegedly indiscriminately fired his M-14 rifle after he was not allowed to bet in a cockpit last Friday in Tabuelan town has already been relieved according to the Cebu Provincial Police Office director yesterday.

CPPO director S/Supt. Vicente Loot yesterday said that SPO1 Victor Agang has been relieved and assigned to the Security and Service Group of the CPPO and is under investigation.

Earlier Loot said that Agang faces dismissal from the police service if the accusations will be proven true.

Agang, an alert team member of Tabuelan police station, was reportedly drunk when he and some policemen of the Regional Mobile Group were conducting a roving patrol in barangay Maravilla. The barangay was holding its fiesta and had a permit to hold a cockfight.

Pocholo Lamug, who applied for the permit to hold the cockfight, stopped Agang from placing a bet because he entered the cockpit bringing the rifle. This led to a heated argument between them prompting the RMG personnel to drag Agang out of the cockpit and take him back to the police station.

But Agang did not stay long in the police station, he slipped out and went back to the cockpit with the rifle. Agang reportedly fired the gun several times, scaring the spectators. When policemen learned what was happened they went to the cockpit and brought Agang back to the police station.

Agang was disarmed, placed under tactical arrest and restricted to quarters while an investigation was being conducted.

Meanwhile, Loot also said that the Provincial Internal Affairs Service will investigate the Tabogon police chief for not sending his men to investigate when a 13-year-old boy died after being struck by lighting last week.

Welito Toling of barangay Canaocanao, Tabogon town, died instantly when lightning hit him. His brothers Junel, 11, and Galiner, one year old, were rushed to the Don Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center for treatment.

Loot said that there is nothing to investigate since the incident was a natural disaster but they should have sent men to record the event, not say they could not send police to the place because the place was risky, he said after Insp. Wilfredo Giducos reportedly used that reason.

"Ang amo lang ana for record purposes lang, dili na rason nga dili paadtoan kay kuyaw," Loot said.

Loot said that the town's chief learned the incident from the media since no one from the family or neighbors of the victim went to the police station to report the incident. - Norvie S. Misa