Slain cop supported fiancee in studying abroad

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - One of the six police officers killed in an encounter with Moro rebels in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Sunday was supposed to marry next year his lawyer-fiancée studying in New Zealand through his financial support.

Senior Inspector Garry Erana, of the police’s elite Special Action Force, was one of the more than 20 policemen killed in a mis-encounter with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Barangay Tukanalipao in Mamasapano while searching for a Malaysian bomb maker, Zulkifli Bin Hir, also known as “Marwan,” and his ethnic Maguindanaon cohort Basit Usman.

Usman, who hails from Maguindanao, was said to have undergone training in handling and fabrication of explosives in Peshawar, Pakistan and in Kandahar, Afganistan in the late 1980s. The Malaysian national Marwan belong to Al-Qaeda's Asian cell, the Jemaah Islamiya.

Erana’s girlfriend, lawyer Suzette Tucay, a former employee of the regional office of the Civil Service Commission in Zamboanga City, said she and Erana last exchanged text messages on Saturday, while he and his men were on their way to Mamasapano in the second district of Maguindanao.

“He told me in one of his text messages that he loves me so much and that we shall see each other soon,” said Tucay, who hails from Barangay Sta. Clara in Lamitan City, capital of the island province of Basilan.

Erana graduated as baron of the class 2009 of the Philippine National Police Academy.

Tucay taking the next flight to the Philippines to see the remains of the slain police officer she was to marry next year.

Tucay first met Erana, whom she described as “a very fine man,” during the wake of her brother, also a member of the SAF, who also perished in a police operation more that three years ago.

“After sometime we started dating, became lovers and eventually got engaged in 2013,” Tucay said.

Tucay said Erana sent her to school in New Zealand to study a business course while waiting for their marriage in 2016.

Tucay said Erana was a “forward-looking man,” who dreamed so much of good, professional careers for them both and children after they get married.

Tucay said Erana was a good benefactor of her studies abroad.

Erana was a student of a doctorate course related to police service at the time of his death.

He was already due for a special law enforcement study in the United States of America this year, according to relatives.

Tucay said while she is so saddened by her boyfriend’s demise, she draws courage to overcome the ordeal by keeping in mind his "great example" of utmost devotion to public service, to the point of dying in line of duty.