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CEBU CITY, Philippines - Tragedy struck in Barangay (village) Ermita, Cebu City in the early hours of Father's Day on Sunday when a father lost his 14-year-old son to a stray bullet fired by three men suspected to be barangay tanods (village security officers) who were chasing and shooting at a drunken man.
Most young men his age were still asleep about 1:30 a.m. but Junard Anter was already doing what he usually did — helping his father Ananiaz, a vendor and trisikad driver — when he was felled by a bullet that lodged in his heart.
Junard was unloading vegetables from his father’s trisikad (bicycle with sidecar) along F. Gonzales Street corner Lincoln Street in Ermita when he was hit by a stray bullet fired by one of the three men pursuing a drunken man who was reportedly brandishing a large bolo and had apparently gone berserk.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña called for a thorough police investigation, saying it was not reasonable for a tanod to shoot a drunk who was trying to get away.
“Tanods can only shoot if it is between a life and death situation, definitely not a drunk person running,” he told Cebu Daily News (CDN) in a phone interview.
Ermita barangay Captain Felicisimo Rupinta promised to submit all his tanods to an investigation. But he insisted it was unlikely that one of them was the culprit, adding he was “80 percent sure” they could get the suspect but he was not one of his village watchmen.
Superintendent Paul Labra II, the city police’s deputy director for operations, said that if Rupinta knew the suspect, the barangay captain should surrender him to the police immediately.
He said Rupinta could be charged with obstruction of justice as his actions could hamper the investigation.
Labra said he also received information that some of “Rupinta’s men” knew the shooter and the police was now trying to find him.
Before the public could debate on the question of whether or not tanods should be issued firearms, matters turned into a nightmare for the grief-stricken Ananiaz when he ended up being berated by Rupinta for pointing to a tanod as the assailant.
Ananiaz said Rupinta promised to help him bury his son and bring the culprit to justice but because he had publicly declared that a tanod was responsible for his son’s death, against the advice of Rupinta, he lost all chance to get help from the village chief.
Amid the confusion as to who actually shoot Junard, the drunk who supposedly started it all, was identified as fruit vendor Wilson Bagol, 27. He suffered a bullet wound on the left thigh and was now confined the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).
Records from the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) homicide section showed that Bagol, after a few drinks, got rowdy, started swinging his bolo and threatened everyone around him.
Bagol ran away when he saw three unidentified men approaching him.
The three men, seeing Bagol running away, took out their pistols, and started shooting at Bagol, the police records said.
They did not realize that they hit someone from the sidelines, according to the police blotter.
Junard was carrying a bag filled with tomatoes when a bullet ripped through his left chest, hitting his heart.
After taking the bullet, the teenager cried out to his father in pain.
Ananiaz clutched his son in his arms as he called out for help to one of the three men carrying guns but they ran away. Ananiaz later identified one of the men brandishing their guns as a tanod in Ermita.
One of the responding policemen from the Carbon Police Station, Police Officer 1 Mark Sy, took Junard to CCMC where the young man died about 3:40 a.m.
Ananiaz told CDN that Junard, the third among his five children, was a good boy who quit school because he wanted to help his family.
Junard worked as a trisikad driver in the morning and helped his father in the evening to haul bundles of vegetables that they would sell to buyers from Bogo City in northern Cebu.
Ananiaz said he went to Rupinta to ask for his help. The barangay captain, during their one-one-meeting, told him he knew the suspect and promised to present him to police, but only after Junard's body would be properly buried.
Ananiaz said Rupinta also promised him that he would submit all his barangay tanods to a police investigation provided that the victim's father would not sue or tell the media about the incident.
Ananiaz said Rupinta made it clear to him that if he would threaten to sue or tell the incident to the police, the village chief would not spend a single centavo for the burial of his son.
But Ananiaz still went to the police and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, he and CCPO homicide investigators led by Senior Police Officer 2 Rey Cuyos, accompanied by some reporters, went to the Ermita barangay hall for a police line up of the 20 members of the barangay's tanods.
But only 16 tanods were present. A barangay councilor sent men to summon the four other tanods but they did not show up.
In the line up, Ananiaz identified Alvin Mahilum as the one of the three gun-totting men from whom he had asked for help.
But Mahilum immediately denied the allegation, claiming he was off duty when the incident happened.
He, however, refused when police asked him to submit to a paraffin test, saying he might test positive because at 10 p.m. on Saturday, he fired his .38 caliber revolver in the seaside near the area.
Mahilum also claimed he could not have responded to an alarm about a drunk running amok because he was resting after taking prescription drugs to control his high-blood pressure.
Mahilum told Ananiaz that he might have mistaken him for someone else because he knew someone in the area who looked just like him.
Rupinta arrived shortly after the line up was completed. Instead of consoling the victim's father, he scolded Ananiaz in front of the police and the reporters for pointing at the wrong suspect and for not abiding with their “deal.”
He led Ananiaz to his office and angrily reminded the latter about their agreement to only present the suspect to the police after his son was buried.
He told reporters that he was “80 percent sure” that they could capture the suspect, with help from police.
He then turned to Ananiaz and angrily told the latter that Mahilum was the wrong suspect.
Ananiaz, embarrassed and in tears, apologized to Mahilum for supposedly mistaking him as the man who could have shot his son.
Rupinta said he was sure that the suspect was not one of his tanods but would only present the culprit after Junard would be buried properly.
Cuyos, however, was not done with the case.
He said he would investigate the four tanods who failed to present themselves in the police line-up.
The four - Ermita’s chief tanod Vicente Bosque and tanods Ernesto Dela Rama, Henry Salapa and Anthony Fernandez - would be contacted by homicide police for interrogation, Cuyos said.
Mayor Osmeña directed the police to do a thorough probe on the incident as he assured the Anter family that the city government would give financial assistance to ensure a decent burial for Junard.
He also said arming barangay tanods would not be a problem for as long as they would know the rules of engagement in shooting.
Tanods are under the supervision of the barangay captains, according to Councilor Augustus Pe Jr., who chairs the Cebu City council’s committee on public order and safety.
Most of the time, barangay captains side with their barangay tanods, according to Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) Eugenio Faelnar of Guadalupe.
Despite the incident, Faelnar said he would still push for the proposal to issue firearms to the tanods.
“I have been pushing the idea (of arming tanods) to the council because lives of the tanods are often in danger especially when they respond to crimes,” Faelnar said.
Faelnar stressed that most criminals are armed and it would be difficult for tanods to respond if they were only armed with batons.
But before giving them the firearms, tanods should undergo proper training, he said.
The shooting incident in Ermita should not have happened if the tanod was properly trained in shooting, according to Pe.
“But whatever happened to (the investigation in the Ermita shooting incident), tanods should not be generalized,” Pe said. /with reports from Correspondent Marian Z. Codilla
