Mayor urges Mandaluyong cops to seal firearms after shooting fiasco

Blood on the road shows the aftermath of the shooting incident at the corner of Shaw Boulevard and Old Wack Wack Road in Mandaluyong City on Thursday, Dec. 28, 2017. Two people died in the incident, while two others were reported wounded. (Photo by TETCH TORRES-TUPAS / INQUIRER.net)

Mandaluyong Mayor Carmelita “Menchie” Abalos on Friday called on the city police officers to seal all their firearms during New Year’s Eve festivities following a botched police operation on Shaw Boulevard on Thursday.

Abalos ordered Senior Supt. Moises Villaceran Jr., chief of the Mandaluyong City Police Station, to conduct a thorough investigation on the incident.

“I am directing your good office to conduct a thorough investigation on the matter while at the same (time) preventively suspending all police officers involved,” Abalos said in a two-page letter.

The mayor also expressed her dismay to Villaceran, stressing that the incident should have never happened.

“This hapless incident should have not happened. Nonetheless, it serves as a reminder to our police officers that reports, from whatever source, should be verified first before conducting any police operation,” she said.

“On another note, I am also urging your good office to direct the sealing of all firearms so that they may not be used for incidents of indiscriminate firing during the New Year’s Eve celebration,” she said.

But hours after the incident, Villaceran, along with other police officers involved, was relieved of his post by Director Oscar Albayalde, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office.

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Police officers and village watchmen opened fire at the wrong vehicle during an operation and killed two innocent civilians, according to a survivor.

Abalos scolded the village watchmen involved in incident as she ordered their suspension.

“In those rare instances where their (village watchmen) lives might be placed in peril, their duty is not to fire shots at anyone but to immediately report the incident to the police officers for the conduct of an immediate and legitimate police operation,” she said.

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Albayalde said a memorandum has been issued for the PNP Crime Laboratory to conduct a ballistic examination on the service firearms of the relieved police officers. /atm