Shot over a bowl of leftover ‘lugaw’

KIDAPAWAN CITY, North Cotabato, Philippines—A militiaman was rushed to a hospital here near midnight Tuesday after a colleague fired at him with a shotgun for taking  away leftover rice gruel and giving it to a detainee without the former’s permission, the authorities said.

Police investigators said Erman Abalo, a member of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Force (BPAF) in Barangay Sudapin, noticed that his colleague, Pedro Tubay, had not eaten all of his “lugaw,” a kind of rice gruel or porridge. So he took Tubay’s bowl and handed it over to a detainee he had taken pity on.

Danny Ajoc, BPAF federation chair, said Tubay claimed he felt offended that Abalo had taken his bowl of lugaw away without his permission.

Ajoc said Tubay admitted shooting the victim with his official-issue 12-gauge shotgun past 11 p.m. after a brief argument over his missing leftover “lugaw.”

Some pellets from the exploding shotgun shell hit Abalo in the head, Ajoc said. Tubay voluntarily surrendered to the police after the shooting.

“Abalo might have presumed that it was all right with Tubay as it was leftover food anyway,” he said.

Ajoc said BPAF federation was conducting a parallel investigation to determine what really prompted Tubay to shoot his colleague, who appeared only to have taken pity on the detainee who might have been hungry at that time.

“We want to know if there was a deeper reason for that because raising ire over leftover food was simply illogical,” Ajoc said.

Meanwhile, local residents stirred by the incident, called up a local radio station and questioned the issuance of firearms to militiamen even if the election gun ban was still in effect.

The gun ban, imposed last January in connection with the May 13 midterm elections and effective until June 13, prohibits the carrying of guns by individuals, even by policemen and soldiers, unless specifically allowed to do so by the Commission on Elections.

Neither officials from the police or the Comelec here issued any statement regarding the issuance of firearms to militiamen in the face of the gun ban.