What ‘scripted shootout’? Wounded antidrug cop cited

MEDALS FOR THE WOUNDED Chief Supt. Oscar Albayalde, NCRPO director, congratulates PO2 Alvin Taduyo at the hospital on Friday. ANNELLE TAYAO-JUEGO

Hoping to prove cynics wrong, the chief of the Metro Manila police on Friday conferred honors on an officer who was wounded in an antidrug operation where three suspects were killed.

“This will dispel the notion that the encounters between the police and drug suspects are just made up or scripted. In any operation, the suspect need not shoot [at an officer]; he could just point a gun at the police and [the latter] would already be in danger,” said Chief Supt. Oscar Albayalde, director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

“An officer wouldn’t shoot his own foot and even fracture his bone,” Albayalde told reporters after pinning two medals on PO2 Alvin Taduyo of the Taguig police, as the awardee lay on his hospital bed.

Taduyo was part of the team that conducted a buy-bust operation early Thursday on 7th Street, GHQ Village, in Barangay Katuparan, Taguig.

According to Taduyo, he was the one tasked to close the deal with the alleged drug pushers:  Bryan Oliveros, 40; Edwin Reyes, 46; and PO3 Leonilo Quiambao, an NCRPO member who had gone Awol.

After the transaction, the suspects “sensed” that they were dealing with the police, drew their weapons and opened fire, he said. The officers retaliated, killing the three suspects on the spot.

Taduyo suffered a gunshot wound in the left foot. Albayalde, who took over recently as NCRPO chief when President Duterte revamped the police hierarchy, noted that Taduyo was the first officer on his watch to be wounded in an encounter with drug suspects.

Taduyo received the Philippine National Police Medal of Merit and Wounded Medal while recovering at St. Luke’s Medical Center at Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

Also present was Southern Police District (SPD) director, Senior Supt. Tomas Apolinario. The Taguig City government has volunteered to shoulder Taduyo’s medical expenses at St. Luke’s.

Another SPD member, PO1 Ray Bautista of the Pasay police, also received the Medal of Merit for chasing and killing one of the three robbers who victimized bus passengers on Gil Puyat Avenue also on Thursday.