Soldiers storm Lipa City police station

The Philippine Army relieved and placed under camp restriction one of its officers who, along with 40 of his men, stormed the Lipa City police station before dawn yesterday.

Sacked as operations officer of the Special Forces Company in Southern Tagalog was Army Capt. Rommil Abayon.

Army chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, through Maj. Gen. Pedro Cabuay, Armed Forces Southern Luzon (Solcom) chief, also ordered Abayon investigated for possible military sanctions.

Abayon and 40 of his men swooped down on the Lipa City police station to recover his service firearms which Lipa City policemen earlier had confiscated from him as part of their Oplan Bakal while he was inside a nightclub in the Batangas city.

The soldiers virtually overpowered the 15 policemen manning the police station.

Aside from manhandling the policemen, Abayon and his men disarmed them of their service firearms, including an AK-47, three M-16 rifles, four 9-mm pistols, three caliber .45 pistols and two caliber .38 revolvers.

Abayon’s group also beat up the desk officer, SPO3 Alberto Garing, who suffered contusions on the abdomen and other parts of the body.

Col. Rolando Detabale, commander of the Army’s 202nd Infantry Brigade based in Siniloan, Laguna, later personally returned the policemen’s firearms.

Investigation showed that Lipa City policemen disarmed Abayon of his caliber .45 pistol and M-16 rifle at about 2:24 a.m. inside the What Else Bar in Barangay Balintawak.

Humiliated, Abayon left, but returned fully armed two hours later, and together with his men who arrived on board a six-by-six Army truck, stormed the police station to recover his firearms.

The Army leadership vowed to conduct its own inquiry into the incident while giving assurances that it would fully cooperate with the ongoing police investigation.

Superintendent Manuel Kalalo, deputy director of the Batangas police, said charges of physical injuries, illegal possession of firearms and robbery in band will be filed against Abayon and his men.