UNTIMELY DEATH. Calbayog City Mayor Ronaldo Aquino was on his way to his son’s birthday celebration when his convoy got involved in a shootout on Monday afternoon (March 8, 2021). The mayor, three policemen, and two civilians died in the incident. (Photo courtesy of PIA-Samar)
MANILA – The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) will probe Monday’s gunfight that resulted in the death of at least six individuals, including three policemen and Calbayog City Mayor Ronaldo Aquino.
Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra, in an interview on Tuesday, said the NBI will look into reports that local police units were allegedly involved.
"Ire-refer namin sa NBI for the simple reason na ang other party involved ay PNP (It will be referred to the NBI for the simple reason that the other party is the PNP). ‘Yun ang na-gather naming information, na ang naka-engkuwentro allegedly ay police officers (That is the information we gathered that the encounter involved police officers),” he said in an interview.
Guevarra said they have been receiving different versions and directed the NBI to proceed with an “objective and impartial investigation”.
The 58-year-old Aquino, three policemen, and two civilians were killed Monday afternoon in a shootout at Laboyao Bridge in Lonoy village.
He suffered the same fate as his predecessor, Reynaldo Uy, who was killed during a fiesta celebration in Hinabangan, Samar in 2011.
Then-Vice Mayor Aquino took over Uy’s post and was on his third and last term at the time of his death.
Uy’s killing is still unsolved.
On Monday, Aquino's convoy was heading to their family-owned resort, after a game of tennis at the Calbayog Sports Complex, to attend the birthday party of his son.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has already created a Special Investigation Task Group, headed by Region VIII deputy regional director for operations Col. Edwin Wagan.
A revised police report released 8 a.m. Tuesday disclosed that while Aquino and his aides were heading north on board a white van, one of his security personnel fired at the vans, which they allegedly thought were following them.
Other vehicles, later identified to be carrying PNP personnel from IMEG (integrity monitoring and enforcement group) and DEU (drug enforcement unit), then fired back.
Aquino, S/Sgt. Rodeo Balonzo, S/Sgt. Romeo Laoyon, and Dennis Abayon, the mayor’s driver, died on the spot. Laoyon was onboard one of the vehicles reportedly pursuing the mayor’s car while Balonzo, Cebu, and Labonite were in the same car with Aquino.
Wounded were S/Sgt. Neil Cebu and Mansfield Labonite, the mayor’s aide; and Clint John Paul Yauder, a local government employee, whose car was just passing by. He later died at the St. Camillus Hospital Calbayog.
Eastern Visayas police spokesperson, Lt. Col. Bella Rentuaya, said the body of Capt. Joselito Tabada, chief of the Samar PNP DEU and acting chief of police of nearby Gandara town, was recovered under the bridge on the same night.
Tabada was onboard a van said to be tailing the mayor's car. His death was not included in the spot report due to the late discovery of his body.
Calbayog, a commercial hub in the northwest part of Samar province, is about 172 kilometers north of Tacloban, the regional capital. (PNA)
