Policeman shot dead in Calbayog

CEBU, Philippines – Police authorities in Calbayog City are now tracking down the five gunmen who killed a policeman of this city in front of a bakery at 1 a.m. yesterday.

The victim was identified as Senior Police Officer 2 Neleo Panzo Judluman, who was assigned to the Calbayog City Police Intelligence Operations Unit, and a former member of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

Superintendent Ernesto Tagle, chief of the Calbayog Police, said initial investigations showed that Judluman arrived on his motorcycle at the bakery in Nijaga Street of Barangay Central, near an inn in the city, to check on a man and a woman standing outside the establishment.

Judluman accosted the two and then asked them to show him their sling bag, which he suspected may have contained a gun.

The two however resisted, protesting they were being harassed by the police. This prompted Judluman to fire a warning shot into the air with his 9mm service firearm, but he was unaware that they had three male companions nearby who eventually approached and shot him twice in the back.

Judluman died on the spot, while the five perpetrators fled from the scene on two motorcycles.

Tagle said further investigation on the killing was still going on, adding that it was possible the five yet unidentified persons could be members of private armed groups in Calbayog. —Miriam Garcia Desacada and Rommel L. Rutor (FREEMAN)