MANILA, Philippines—A policeman accused of killing an officer of Quezon City’s Business Permit Licensing Office (BPLO) over a traffic altercation has been charged with murder.
PO1 Joe-nel Bayubay, 35, of the Kamuning police station, remains at large as he has not reported for work since he reportedly shot dead BPLO licensing officer Michael Martinez at 1:20 a.m. on Feb. 28, the police said.
Bayubay was traced through the plate number (UJY 163) of the white Tamaraw FX van he was driving when he figured in a traffic altercation with the 61-year-old victim on Judge Jimenez Street in Barangay Kristong Hari, Quezon City.
When shown a photo of the policeman, witnesses confirmed that he was the one who shot Martinez twice, hitting him in the chin.
Insp. Elmer Monsalve, chief of the Quezon City Police District’s homicide section, said that a murder case was filed against Bayubay in the Quezon City Prosecutor’s office on Monday.
According to Monsalve, the policeman was charged with murder because he did not bring to the hospital the victim who died due to his injuries.
Charged along with Bayubay were several men riding in his van at the time of the shooting. The other suspects, however, have yet to be identified, Mosalve said.
According to Kamuning police station commander Supt. Limuel Obon, Bayubay was on emergency leave from Feb. 25 to March 3. He has yet to report for work since then and is now considered absent without official leave.
Monsalve said the police looked for Bayubay in his house in Barangay Pinyahan, Quezon City, and in his home province of Abra but did not find him.
Based on the footage taken by a closed circuit television camera in the area where the shooting occurred, Martinez, who was in a green car, chased after the policeman’s van.
He managed to block the vehicle near a gasoline station where he and the men inside the van figured in a shouting match.
One of them, however, drew a gun and shot the victim twice in the chin before the van sped off toward the Cubao area. Rima Granali