SHOT BY SOLDIERS PNP Director General Oscar Albayalde pins a medal on PO1 Romulo Cordero, one of the nine policemen wounded in a mistaken clash with soldiers in Samar province. —JOEY GABIETA
Funeral wreaths adorned each of the six white caskets with the remains of policemen slain in a mistaken clash with soldiers in a Samar town.
Missing were those donated by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
The wreaths offered by the AFP were being brought into a police gym, where the wake for the six officers was being held, but had to be brought back to the Army truck that carried these when relatives rejected the military offering.
“It hurt us,” said Rachel Reyes, 23, wife of one of the slain policemen, PO1 Rowell Reyes, about the wreaths from the AFP.
“It’s just like an insult,” she added.
The relatives showed anger at the deaths of the policemen in the hands of soldiers in other ways.
Whitewash feared
As investigations started, the relatives called on authorities to prevent a whitewash and demanded swift justice.
Virginia, mother of Police Officer 1 Reyes, said the family wanted nothing but justice.
“Whatever help they give us is nothing,” Virginia said. “It’s justice we want,” she added.
Some of the relatives said they believed the clash in the village of San Roque, Sta. Rita town, Samar, was not just a “chance encounter” and the dead cops were actually victims of an ambush.
They were to meet on Friday with President Duterte, who had said the clash was the result of Murphy’s Law when “everything that could go wrong goes wrong.”
Separate probes were being conducted by the AFP and the Philippine National Police.
No ordinary crime
PO3 Jessie Escalo, whose younger brother PO1 Julie Escalo was among the six policemen killed in the clash, said that while the families welcomed the probes they hoped “truth will come out.”
“We just hope that no whitewash will happen,” Jessie said.
“We want justice for us and for my brother,” he added.
Teresita Suarez, 69, and mother of another slain officer, PO1 Julius Suarez, said only an impartial probe could give her peace of mind.
“They should give us justice and punish those responsible for the death of my son,” Teresita said, sobbing.
“I cannot allow the death of my son to be just an ordinary crime. He was killed,” she said.
Rachel, who hails from Victoria, Northern Samar, and was left with two young daughters to care for, said it was hard for her to accept that her husband’s death was accidental.
‘It was ambush’
“It was ambush,” she said.
Remains of the six policemen—Police Officers 1 Wyndell Noromor, Edwin Ebrado, Phil Rey Mendigo, Julius Suarez, Rowell Reyes and Julie Escalo—lie at the gym of the PNP regional headquarters in Camp Ruperto Kangleon, Palo town.
Wreaths from the PNP, Department of the Interior and Local Government and from other donors adorned each of six white caskets.