Probers pursue leads in killing of S. Cotabato cop

GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Probers said they are pursuing several leads as they dig deeper into the killing of a policeman in the South Cotabato town of Tupi over the weekend.

Chief Insp. Lemuel Clarete, chief of the Tupi municipal police station, said Monday several angles, including personal and work-related circumstances, into the murder of Police Officer (PO) 1 Achilles Tablazon of Police Regional Office-12 (PRO12).    

Tablazon was gunned down by an unidentified suspect at past 10 a.m. Saturday in front of his house in Barangay Palian, Tupi.

His last posting was in the security staff of Chief Supt. Ulysses Caton, deputy regional director for administration of the PRO-12.

He was previously assigned at the intelligence branch of the South Cotabato Police Provincial Office based in Koronadal City.

“It could be due to a personal grudge or related to his previous assignment as an intelligence officer,” Clarete said.

A report from the Tupi municipal police station said Tablazon was about to board his pickup truck when he was shot by a bonnet-clad gunman, who hastily fled after the incident.

The policeman succumbed to several gunshot wounds on his head and body and was declared dead upon arrival at a hospital in Korondal City.

Responding police operatives recovered at the scene at least four spent shells and a bullet of a caliber .45 pistol.      

Clarete said Tablazon was on his way to return some borrowed chairs when the incident happened.

He said the family hosted a party the previous night for the debut or 18th birthday of the daughter of Tablazon’s live-in partner.

Clarete said the shooting was captured by the closed-circuit television or CCTV camera installed outside the victim’s house.

“We’re currently reviewing the footages and hopefully we can be able to identify the suspect,” he said. (PNA)