COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A police corporal landed in jail for badly mauling a girlfriend and aiming a pistol at her nape as she grimaced in pain that netizens caught on video that went viral on Facebook.
Cpl. Louie Jay Lumancas of the Magpet Municipal Police Station attacked her girlfriend, Shaira Basmayor Kahar, in Canapia Subdivision in Kidapawan City late Monday.
He was immediately arrested by responding personnel of the Kidapawan City Police Office who, along with other emergency responders, rushed the badly beaten woman to a hospital.
Brig. Gen. Jimili Macaraeg, director of the Police Regional Office 12, told reporters Wednesday he had ordered the filing of separate criminal and administrative cases against Lumancas.
Various cause-oriented blocs of women in central Mindanao had urged the police to immediately prosecute the suspect for violation of Republic Act 9262, also known as the state’s Violence Against Women and Children’s Act.
People privy to the incident told reporters the drunken Lumancas first confronted Kahar over her alleged dealings with a suitor before he started punching her in the face and different parts of her body.
Lumancas also repeatedly hit Kahar's face with his right knee before he grabbed her hair and aimed a pistol on her forehead.