Cotabato City cop chief gunned down accuser?

COTABATO CITY — A crusading policeman got killed yesterday in what local officials described as a "mysterious shootout" with the city police director, whom he implicated last week in the operations of local gambling syndicates and illegal public terminals.

The city police director, Superintendent Amerodin Hamdag, however, said it was his escort, PO1 Alim Pagadur, who "neutralized" the victim, SPO1 Aljerico Llorente.

Hamdag said Llorente allegedly fired at them first while he was inspecting the Rosary Heights police station here.

Llorente had been grounded since last week at the Rosary Heights police station after exposing, in interviews with radio stations, Hamdag’s alleged involvement in gambling rackets.

"He shot me first when he saw me. It was just fortunate that I was not hit and my escort succeeded in returning fire even before I could pull out my pistol," Hamdag told Catholic radio station dxMS yesterday.

Chief Inspector Saiben Acmad, chief of the Rosary Heights police precinct, said he was inside his room when the shootout occurred.

He said he has asked the local Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) unit, which is not under the operational and administrative control of the city police, to investigate the incident.

The animosity between Hamdag and Llorente started last week when the latter accused his superior of "protecting" gambling syndicates and operators of illegal transport terminals in the city.

Llorente, who claimed he collected "protection money" from illegal gambling groups for Hamdag, distributed to various media outlets last weekend a sworn statement detailing the alleged involvement of the police chief in various illegal activities.

Llorente alleged that he also collected, on Hamdag’s behalf, P250 daily "protection money" from operators of illegal transport terminals.

"I remitted all the collections to Superintendent Hamdag," Llorente told dxMS last Tuesday.

Some sectors earlier had petitioned for Hamdag’s ouster. The 10-member city council earlier passed a strongly worded resolution urging Philippine National Police chief Director General Leandro Mendoza to investigate Hamdag’s alleged illegal activities.