Tacloban cop slain

TACLOBAN CITY- A police officer assigned to the Tacloban City Police Office (TCPO) was shot dead by still unidentified suspects on Sunday morning.

PO2 Lawrence Tabungar,34, was on his way home to Peerless Village, this city, at 9:15 a.m. when the still unidentified assailants repeatedly shot him, said Senior Inspector Ian Po, TCPO information officer.

Based on their initial investigation, Tabungar was cruising along Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Barangay Bacagay on board his vehicle when the ambush took place.

Po said witnesses saw the assailants standing on the street, apparently waiting for the victim to pass by in the area.

“He just finished his duty here in our station and was on his way home when the suspects shot him several times, hitting him on different parts of his body and on his head which was severely damaged. He died on the spot. He was not able to fire back,” said Po in a phone interview.

Inside his vehicle was a cake that the policeman was supposed to bring to his family who was waiting for him to come home at Peerless Village, just across the EVRMC.

Tabungar, who had been a policeman for five years, was with the TCPO’s mobile patrol unit.

Po said they had yet to determine the motive in the killing and the identities of the perpetrators.

Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos, police director for Eastern Visayas, has directed city police director, Senior Supt. Michael David, to immediately conduct an investigation and solve the case./lb