Wounded cop to receive P100,000 from Cebu City

For his act of bravery, P03 Erwin Ferrer, who got shot while responding to a commotion brought about by a drunk man a few days, will be receiving P100,000 from the City of Cebu.

Ferrer, of the Pari-an Police Station, was hit on the chest when the suspect, Christopher Reponte, 25, shot the policeman.  The suspect wasn’t however as lucky as the Ferrer as he was killed on the spot when the policeman retaliated.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña said that “as promised,” P50,000 of the reward is attributed to the fact that Ferrer was able to pin down the subject of the operation.

The other P50,000, Osmeña said, is for the gallantry Ferrer had shown.

Last month, the city was willing to shell out P50,000 for each suspect that the police would gun down in the pursuit of an arrest. The city was also willing to shell out P20,000 to off-duty policeman who could pin down suspects of crimes.

The P50,000 bounty for each suspect killed during a pursuit started with last month’s twin-pawnshop heists wherein a bystander, Remedio Dungog, was killed during a shootout with a lone policeman while the suspects were trying to escape.

Charges have already been filed against the 10 suspects of the May 24 robbery on Oro Sugbu and Agencia Omega on Magallanes Street in downtown Cebu.

Of the 10, only two were identified- Baby Toring and Emmanuel Carabelle. Only Toring was arrested.

Toring, however, denied any participation in the crime, claiming that he and a certain Cecilia Santillan were checked in at a pension house at the time of the robberies.

In Ferrer’s case, the policeman was shot at when his team responded to an alarm raised by some trisikad drivers in barangay Kamagayan when a drunk man armed with a gun woke them up and pointed his gun at them.

However, when the police arrived at the scene, Reponte, tucked his gun under his armpit and, without turning around, fired at Ferrer who was standing behind him.

Police said Reponte was a resident of Univille, barangay Kasambagan, but originally from Surigao del Sur.

SPO1 Rogelio Nedamo, who was with Ferrer’s team, narrated that Ferrer was the first one to disembark from the police vehicle when Reponte opened fire. Despite being hit, Ferrer was able to return fire, hitting Reponte once in the chest and killing him on the spot.

Ferrer was immediately rushed to the Velez General Hospital and later transferred to the Chong Hua Hospital.

City Police Chief Patrocinio Comendador said that because Ferrer was wounded in the line of duty, he will be recommending a medal for him. The PNP usually gives Medalya ng Sugatang Magiting to policemen wounded in the line of duty. – Joeberth M. Ocao/NLQ