BACOLOD City Mayor Evelio Leonardia said Wednesday the series of shooting incidents in the city is already alarming.
Leonardia said policemen should be alert, and the public should be more cautious.
On Tuesday alone, three persons were killed while two others were injured in separate shooting incidents in Barangays Taculing, Estafania, and Granada.
Leonardia said he will allow the police to conduct investigations to identify and arrest the suspects.
Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran had earlier said the unsolved shooting incidents since last year are alarming.
Familiaran said that Bacolod is generally peaceful, but what is alarming is the unsolved cases being handled by the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO).
Senior Superintendent Jack Wanky, officer-in-charge of BCPO, said these crime incidents will be a challenge for him to address.
Wanky, who joined Leonardia in a press conference at the Mayor’s Office Wednesday, directed all police station commanders to intensify their drug campaign and visibility patrol operations.
“I’m not the only one involved here, I need the cooperation of everybody,” Wanky said.
He added that despite the series of shooting incidents the other day, the Bacolod police is still in control of the city’s peace and order situation.
Last Tuesday, Jovel Batusbatusan, 24, of Purok Masinulundon, Barangay 23, was gunned down by an unidentified man at C.C. Aquino Drive in Barangay Taculing around 1 a.m.
Harold Mira, 24, of Barangay 27 was also shot to death on a passenger jeepney by two unidentified men on a motorcycle along Burgos Extension around 8 a.m.
Fifteen minutes before the incident, Mira’s two co-workers, Ricky Villones of Binalbagan town and Roy del Rosario of Bacolod City, were shot by two unidentified assailants on a motorcycle in a construction site at Barangay Estefania.
In the evening, the principal witness in the robbery-killing of a Chinese national in the city was found dead at crossing Carmen in Barangay Granada around 8:50 p.m.
Byron Bacarro, 32, of Barangay 35 was killed by unidentified men on board a private vehicle and left his body beside the road.
Police have yet to identify the perpetrators of the three incidents.
Wanky said that based on the parameters of the police, the incidents are considered to be alarming, but in general, it’s not.
Chief Superintendent Renato Gumban, acting regional director of Police Regional Office (PRO)-Negros Island Region said the shooting incidents involving Batusbatusan, Mira, and his co-workers were considered to be drug-related.
Senior Inspector Elmer Bonilla, chief of Police Station 4, said they cannot yet establish if the two incidents in his area of jurisdiction were drug-related although Mira was allegedly a drug user, based on the statement of his family.
Chief Inspector Jovil Sedel, head of Police Station 6, said illegal drugs is one of the angles they are considering in the killing of Batusbatusan.
On the part of Bacarro, he was killed two days after he reportedly retracted his sworn statement implicating former Police Officer 1 Jason Sumalangcay and Police Officer 2 Marlon Famucol in the robbery-killing of Chinese national Changle Wu, 26, son of the owner of JDS Mindoro Enterprises Corp., and security guard Jilbert Mayang, 40, of Barangay Talagacay, Hinoba-an town.
The incident happend in downtown Bacolod on the night of December 25.
A few days ago, Bacarro told reporters that he testified because Superintendent Luisito Acebuche, chief of Bacolod City Public Safety Company, and Senior Inspector Eugene Tolentino, head of Police Station 1, gave him P100,000.
The allegation was denied by the two policemen, claiming that Baccaro was probably intimidated and bribed by the suspects to change his sworn statement.
Tolentino said on Wednesday that Bacarro was seen at the Hall of Justice in the company of a policeman mentioned in the sworn affidavit of PRO-NIR’s top drug suspect Ricky Serenio.
Wanky said they are closely monitoring the details of the robbery-killing case especially now that the principal witness has been killed.
Wanky said Bacarro was asked to be placed under police custody, but he had refused.
