WOUNDED. Brig. Gen. R’win Pagkalinawan, Philippine National Police-Maritime Group director (3rd from right), talks with Staff Sgt. Roger Agodania, one of the four members of the 1201st maritime police station who were wounded in a clash with suspected smugglers off a coastal village in General Santos City last Thursday, during a visit at the Mindanao Medical Center on Friday (Nov. 29, 2019). One of them, Staff Sgt. Rodrigo Salmon, died while undergoing treatment at the same hospital on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of the Regional Maritime Unit-12)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- One of the four maritime policemen who were wounded in an encounter with a group of suspected smugglers off a coastal village here early Thursday has passed away, an official said Sunday.
Brig. Gen. R’win Pagkalinawan, director of the Philippine National Police-Maritime Group (PNP-MG), said Staff Sgt. Rodrigo Salmon died while undergoing treatment around 5 a.m. Saturday at the intensive care unit of the Mindanao Medical Center (MMC) here.
He said the police officer, who was earlier declared in critical condition, succumbed to a gunshot wound on the head.
Elements from the 1201st maritime police station were returning to their post at the Makar port aboard a rubber boat around 4 a.m. Thursday when they were fired upon by suspected smugglers near Purok Kulasi in Barangay Labangal.
The station had launched seaborne patrol operations in parts of the Sarangani Bay over reports of an incoming shipment of smuggled cigarettes from Indonesia.
Salmon and three members of his team identified as Master Sgt. Edilberto Bernardino and Staff Sgts. Roger Agodania and Edwin Tubig Jr. were wounded in the attack but reportedly managed to return fire.
Bernardino went missing after their rubber boat was hit by bullets and eventually capsized about 200 meters from the shores of Purok Kulasi.
“It was an ambush, the suspects were already waiting for them there,” Pagkalinawan said in a phone interview.
The police official said Agodania and Tubig are already out of danger while the search and retrieval operations for Bernardino are still ongoing.
Aside from PNP-MG personnel, he said teams from the Philippine Navy, Philippine Coast Guard and other volunteers, including divers from Indonesia, have joined the search operations.
Pagkalinawan personally visited the wounded maritime policemen at the MMC here on Friday and conferred them the Medalya ng Sugatang Magiting or the PNP Wounded Personnel Medal.
He also released initial financial assistance to Staff Sgts. Tubig and Agodania and Salmon’s wife.
Pagkalinawan said the investigation on the incident is ongoing and they have already identified some of the suspects based on accounts from witnesses.
“We will file frustrated murder and murder charges against these suspects next week,” he said.
He did not name any of the suspects due to the ongoing manhunt operations but said they are members of an organized group of smugglers.
The group was reportedly engaged in the smuggling of cigarettes and other contraband from Indonesia, he said.
Citing intelligence reports, Pagkaliwan said the group’s operations extend to as far as Zamboanga City and other areas in Mindanao. (PNA)
