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A peaceful All Saint's Day turned into a bloody day when three armed men engaged Cebu City policemen in a shootout Sunday afternoon in a checkpoint along M.J. Cuenco Avenue in Cebu City.
The three men, whom police said were suspected to be criminals, were killed after engaging in a short firefight elements of the Task Force Motorcycle (TFM) who were manning a checkpoint meant to curb criminalities involving motorcycle-riding men.
The three fatalities, who sustained multiple gunshot wounds, remained unidentified until 10 p.m. on Sunday.
Chief Inspector George Ylanan, head of the investigation and detection management division of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said the three men, all in their 20s, did not have any identification cards with them.
Ylanan, who led one of the two teams manning the checkpoint, said he believed the three men were former prisoners because of the multiple tattoos on their bodies.
He said his team and that of CCPO deputy director for operations and Task Force Motorcycle head Superintendent Paul Labra were involved in Sunday’s checkpoint operation along M.J. Cuenco, fronting the Cebu State College of Science and Technology (CSCST).
Ylanan said his team was at the lane from Plaza Independencia going to the North reclamation area while Labra's group was at the opposite lane.
There were a total of 13 policemen involved in the operation, including sharpshooter Senior Police Officer 1 Adonis Dumpit, said Ylanan.
Also present were personnel of the Cebu City Operations management (Citom), he said.
Ylanan said the checkpoint, which stopped and checked all motorists on motorcycles, was going on smoothly at around 5 p.m. when a blue Honda XRM motorcycle emerged from the Plaza Independencia area, with three people on board.
He said that even from a distance it was already clear that the three were already in violation of the two-in-a-motorcycle-only rule for motorcycle-riding motorists. They also had no helmets on, which was another violation.
Ylanan said they noticed that the motorcycle’s driver hesitated when he saw the policemen and appeared to be in a quandary as to whether or not he would stop, make a u-turn or continue to their destination.
Ylanan said he and his men were about to stop the motorcycle when they heard bursts of fire from the direction of the three men.
“We had no choice but to defend ourselves; that’s why we retaliated,” Ylanan said.
No one was hurt among the policemen.
After the brief firefight, Ylanan said they brought the three wounded men to the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) but they did not reach the hospital alive.
He said they recovered from the dead men a .357 revolver, a .38 revolver, a knife and a syringe suspected to have been used for illegal drug use.
Scene of the Crime Operations policemen also recovered at least 18 bullets from different guns at the shootout scene.
CCMC information clerk Eva Languido said the three have gunshot wounds in the head, neck and other parts of their bodies.
Languido said the families of the fatalities have yet to claim the bodies so they have to turn over the remains to the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes.
Languido said the fatalities were all in their 20s.
Ylanan stressed they could not be accused of overkill even with the multiple gunshot wounds sustained by the fatalities because what happened, he said, was a legitimate shootout.
“Lisod man gud kung ongoing ang operation kay kung pinusilay na, ang naa sa imong hunahuna mao ang self-preservation; preserve yourself ug dili kay kon pila ang imong napabuto. Ang actual nga combat ug ang gitudlo namo is self-preservation (It’s difficult when the operation is on going because when there is a shootout, your instinct is self-preservation; preserve yourself and not how many times you fired your gun. In actual combat, we are taught to ensure self preservation),” he said.
Ylanan said the incident could even be considered an “accomplishment” of the task force.
The task force was created last month on the order of Central Visayas Police Regional Office (PRO 7) director Ronald Roderos when Camp Crame reported that Cebu City topped the list of areas in the country involving crimes where suspects were riding motorcycles.
Ylanan said since the creation of the task force, they have arrested 10 suspected criminals.
Cebu City Police chief Patrocinio Comendador said that the incident was the first time that TFM caught motorcycle-riding criminals, who engaged policemen in a shootout.
"First time to nga na-aktuhan sa task force na ni-resist," said Comendador.
The TFM was launched on October 25.
Comendador added that with the presence of the Task Force Motorsiklo, it had served as a deterrent for would-be motorcycle-riding criminals.
