Gen. Debold M. Sinas, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), has ordered a thorough investigation on the shootout in Western Samar that resulted in the death of Calbayog City Mayor Ronald Aquino and three others that include a policeman.
Sinas said he had already directed the regional director of Police Regional Office 8, Brig. Gen. Ronaldo de Jesus, to determine all the circumstances on why the group of mayor Aquino ended up trading shots with policemen.
But based on the initial report, the group of Mayor Aquino was on board a van and heading towards the venue of the birthday celebration of his child when the shootout erupted at the Laboyao Bridge in Barangay Lonoy in Calbayog City at around 5:30 p.m. on Monday.
The first initial police report disclosed that it was the armed 'suspects' who opened fire at the vehicle of Mayor Aquino which forced his security details to retaliate. The same initial result stated that Aquino and his two companions were killed on the spot and added that the shootout resulted in the death of 'one of the suspects'
But in a separate police report obtained by the Manila Bulletin, it was the group of Mayor Aquino who allegedly opened fire at the policemen but it stated that it was because Aquino's bodyguards noticed that the vehicles had been 'suspiciously' tailing them.
During that time, the group of Aquino were reportedly not aware that policemen were on board the vehicles that were tailing them. The vehicles turned out to be loaded with cops from the Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG) and the local PNP Drug Enforcement Unit.
A shootout then erupted which allegedly resulted in the death of Mayor Aquino, his driver Dennis Abayon and detailed security Staff Sgt. Rodio Sario.
The 'one of the suspects' referred to in the initial report that was killed turned out to be a policeman identified as Staff Sgt. Romeo Cabococ Laoyon. Another cop, Staff Sgt. Neil Cebu was wounded.
So far, it is not immediately clear why the policemen were tailing the vehicle of Aquino, or if it was just coincidence that their vehicles were behind the mayor's car. Part of the investigation is to determine which among the group fired first.
What is clear, however, is that security is tense in Calbayog City in the past years. In fact, then Mayor Reynaldo Uy was killed in a fiesta celebration in 2011. The killing of Uy remain unsolved.
During the 2019 elections, four supporters of Aquino were also killed in an ambush.