MPD cop killed in shootout

A veteran Manila police officer died in a shootout with six motorcycle-riding men in broad daylight yesterday in Ermita, Manila.

One man on a passenger jeepney was seriously wounded by a stray bullet during the brief gunbattle at the intersection of Taft and Ayala Avenues.

Senior Police Officer 2 Jess Valera, 52, detailed at the Manila Police District’s theft and robbery section, died from a single gunshot wound in the ride side of the body.

Valera died on the way to the nearby state-run Philippine General Hospital.

Chief Inspector Dominador Arevalo Jr., head of the MPD’s theft and robbery section, said Valera was one of several plainclothes police officers deployed along Taft Avenue to go after muggers, snatchers and robbers.

Investigators said Valera was patrolling the southbound lane of Taft Avenue when he heard successive gunshots at around 1 p.m.

He rushed to the scene and found that a gunman and an accomplice on board a motorcycle had ambushed a money exchange dealer whose Toyota Corolla was waiting for a traffic light at the corner of Taft and Ayala avenues.

Valera exchanged fire with the gunman. But he was outgunned when four more gunmen riding in tandem on two motorcycles came up to help their cohort.

When it was over, a bloodied Valera was slumped on the pavement. The gunmen sped away towards the direction of Ayala Bridge.

Cielon Apo, 27, a seaman from Imus, Cavite, was on a southbound passenger jeepney when he took a stray bullet in the chest.

He was taken to Manila Doctors Hospital where doctors have him under close observation.

The original target of the ambush, money exchange dealer Leoncio Bernardo, survived the ambush unscathed.

Crime scene investigators found several spent shells of caliber .45 pistols at the scene.

Police all over Metro Manila have stepped up patrols in the past days to thwart an anticipated crime surge during the holidays.