PNP urged to probe death of Aurora cop
CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga—Hours before he died on Dec. 16 last year at a hospital emergency room, PO2 Lourex Sindac had written the name of the man he claimed had ordered him killed.
That’s the evidence the family of the late policeman from Aurora province now wants the police to look into.
Sindac, 28, was shot in the head in what was reported as an accidental discharge of a weapon by a fellow policeman, PO1 Melvin Hugo. Hugo is facing a charge for reckless imprudence resulting in homicide that was filed by the Baler police on Dec. 21.
Sindac survived long enough to scribble a name on a page in the notebook of P03 Emilio de la Torre Jr., the case’s investigator, the Inquirer was told. A copy of this page was attached to a sworn affidavit of Sindac’s mother, Eufrocina.
“Do you know who could have done this to you?” De la Torre wrote in Filipino next to the name Sindac had written down.
However, the Baler police have neither summoned nor identified in the official investigation report the man Sindac named before he died, SPO1 Ela Marie Sindac-Santiago said in a Jan. 4 letter to Provincial Prosecutor Jobert Reyes. Santiago is Sindac’s older sister.
Santiago said the police stopped the investigation after Hugo was charged. She said her brother used to investigate drug-related cases before his death.
In the letter, Santiago said investigators should talk to the man Sindac had identified, as well as a witness and Sindac’s colleagues, PO1 Mark Querijero and PO3 Rexie Torre. The two policemen were drinking beer with Hugo at the Baler police station’s intelligence office on Dec. 15, and invited Sindac to join them.
That was when Hugo accidentally fired his service firearm, a Glock 17 pistol, according to a report by Senior Insp. Bartolome Antolin, officer in charge of the Baler police.
