Police to gather witnesses of the Holy Week shootout

To get to the truth behind the shootout that led to the death of a Cebu City policeman and a member of the Philippine Air Force last Maundy Thursday, Cebu City Police Office director Patrocinio Comendador ordered Homicide Section chief Mario Monilar to invite people to shed light on the incident.

This as it is not yet clear whether San Nicolas policeman PO2 Jessie Yramis was in the line of duty when it happened and the testimonies of two witnesses who were drinking with PAF Sgt. Darwin Busico contradict each other.

Yramis and Busico shot each other dead outside a videoke bar after they got into an argument.

While there are reports that Yramis was responding to an armed person alarm in a videoke bar, that person allegedly being Busico, there are also reports that Yramis was already inside the bar and started frisking people randomly after his cellphone disappeared, and he wanted Busico and his friends Arnel Jurado and Renato Paon to submit to the search.

Jurado said in his testimony said that it was Yramis who pointed a finger at Busico's wife Ana Lizel prompting Busico to slap his hand away. But Paon said it was Ana Lizel who pointed a finger at Yramis who slapped it away, angering her husband.

Comendador also said that since both are already dead the only purpose of their investigation is to determine whether Yramis was in line of duty at the time.

Yramis' superior, San Nicolas police chief Marciano Batiancela confirmed that Yramis was on-duty during the time of incident were he was a member of the Miscellaneous Team.

Comendador also encouraged Ana Lizel to file a case against responding policemen PO3 Allan Cuizon and PO2s Jasper Nuñez and Rene Labiaga whom she claimed took turns mauling her husband even after he had been shot. - Flor Z. Perolina/BRP