The chief of the Philippine National Police defended Angono cops today for leaving Vincent Adia unguarded at a hospital, where he was shot to death by an unidentified gunman.
Adia survived a shooting, only to be killed inside the Rizal Provincial Hospital System Annex, where he was brought for treatment. The cops who were supposed to be guarding him left him alone because they went to fetch his relatives.
Cascolan said there are no lapses in judgment on the policemen’s part.
Read: Man survives shooting but killed while getting treatment in Angono hospital
“Actually, there was really no threat anymore. Our policemen may have done it right, but we will have to investigate why they did not leave a person to guard [Adia]. They were thinking already that everything was done to its best efforts,” Cascolan said in English and Filipino in a media briefing at Camp Crame in Quezon City.
“We really can’t blame [them] because maybe there was really no need to guard him because there was no threat anymore. They didn’t know what was the [shooting] incident about,” he added.
Despite defending his men, however, Cascolan promised that they would be probed for the incident.
“Those are already under investigation. Including the police, they will be investigated if they have anything to do with it or whatever,” he said.
“We have to presume of course that our policemen did our best also. For any wrongdoing that they have done, we will never tolerate it,” the general added.
According to a hospital worker who treated Adia, before he was killed, the victim wrote down the name of the person who shot him three times on the head, but “the papers he wrote on suddenly went missing.” The gunman then barged inside the emergency room and shot Adia to death while medical workers cowered in fear. He fled from the crime scene onboard a motorcycle with an accomplice.
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