Not wanting to yield to cops: Lawyer ‘kills self’

CEBU, Philippines – “Sud mo diri, di ko magpadakop nga buhi!”

These were the words allegedly shouted by a Bogo City-based lawyer before he shot himself after a three-hour standoff with policemen who came to arrest him in his house in Barangay Taytayan, Bogo City, past midnight yesterday.

Amiel Joaquin Manubag, 34, a CPA lawyer, was pronounced dead on arrival at Cebu Provincial Hospital in Bogo City after he sustained a gunshot wound to the neck.

Prior to his death the lawyer allegedly said he will not be taken alive before he shot himself inside his room.

The investigator of the case, Police Officer 3 Eleymar Mendoza,  said that Bogo City police operatives were trying to serve the warrant of arrest against the lawyer in his house inside a subdivision in Barangay Taytayan.

The warrant of arrest was issued by Judge Dante Manreal of the Municipal Circuit Trial Court in Bogo City for the charges of grave threats and alarm and scandal.

Mendoza said that when the operatives asked to talk to the lawyer he refused to come out of his room and talk to them personally.

As the police tried to persuade the lawyer to come out of the room he appeared to agree, but instead he sent his live-in partner out to the police alone.

After his live-in-partner got out he still did not listen to the police. Shortly after midnight the police and his live-in-partner heard the lawyer allegedly saying “sud mo diri, di ko padakop nga buhi kay dugay na ko’ng patay!”

Not long after that they heard a gunshot. The police forced their way into the room and found the lawyer lying in his bed face up. He was already covered in blood and his hand that held a .38 cal. revolver was resting on his chest.

He was immediately brought by the police to the Bogo City Provincial Hospital. However, he died of his wound there before he could be taken to another hospital.

Scene of the Crime Operatives of the Cebu Provincial Police Office would later say the gunshot wound in his neck had an upward trajectory.

His dead body was brought to a funeral parlor in Bogo City for his wake.

Gun-Toting

Last April, Manubag was arrested for allegedly pointing a gun at a man who was watching a procession in Barangay Cogon, Bogo City.

According to Police Officer 2 Alexander Ancao Jr., Risalde Carabio and his family were standing at the side of the road watching a procession at past 6 p.m. on April 1 when Manubag arrived on a Mitsubishi Adventure and stopped where the victim was standing.

The lawyer reportedly got off the car and pointed a gun at Carabios who ran away and called the police.

Manubag was not there when police arrived, but he was later arrested when he returned, police presumed, wanting to attack the victim again.

 “Nituyok unya nibalik. Didto na namo nadakpan. Bisan naa na sa lugar iya pa unta hamagon si Risalde,” Ancao said.

Ancao said this was the second time the lawyer pointed a gun at the victim and the latter even filed a complaint for grave threat against the suspect for the first incident.

Mendoza said that the lawyer is also facing other criminal charges pending in the court aside from grave threats and alarm and scandal.  — /BRP (FREEMAN)