A police sergeant is now being investigated after he was accused of indiscriminately firing his handgun following an argument with a drinking buddy in New Lucena town of Iloilo, an official of the Internal Affairs Service of the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Saturday.
Col. Roger James Brillantes, director of the PNP-IAS in Western Visayas, said part of the investigation is to determine if Staff Sergeant Agar Octaviano violated the quarantine protocol since policemen are prohibited from engaging in activities that may violate minimum health safety standard to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“We immediately deployed our team to conduct an investigation and to determine the possible lapses on the part of this police personnel,” said Brillantes.
Based on the result of the initial investigation, Octaviano was having a drinking session with friends in Barangay Bita-og, Gaja in New Lucena town on Thursday night when he engaged in a heated argument with a certain Andy Sumido.
At the height of the verbal tussle, the policeman allegedly drew his firearm and fired several times.
In his defense, Octaviano said he was forced to fire a gun to prevent being mobbed by the group of Sumido.
But Brillantes said the IAS team is interviewing several witnesses to shed light on what really happened. And should lapses be established, Brillantes said they would immediately initiate administrative cases against the police sergeant.
“Our focus on this case is based on the order from the NHQ (National Headquarters, Camp Crame) to ensure that we do our part in ensuring that PNP personnel on the ground are behaving properly,” said Brillantes. (Aaron Recuenco)
