BEFORE the coming of the Year of the Metal Ox (2021), this corner tried hard to connect with Sto. Tomas City police chief P/Lt. Col. Armie Agbuya.
Either he’s out on a meeting with Batangas Provincial Police Office (BPPO) hierarchy, or making regular police detachment rounds were the usual info I often get from his ever accommodating station PIO in P/SMS Manaig.
True, Col. Agbuya is the kind of a police officer who won’t settle staying just inside the comforts of his air-conditioned office; rather, he is oftentimes on the move doing things that need to be done under his capacity.
We finally had a chance to squeeze into the busy schedule from the former third man on the ladder of the BPPO hierarchy as head of operations.
It was last Thursday, 27 May 2021.
To sum it up, his impression on STC’s peace and order is “generally peaceful” save for the most recent passion crime hereabouts involving the killing of a live-in partner by hired killers of his very own lady love whose patience and tender loving care ostensibly vanished amidst his alleged cruel intentions to her and towards her daughter.
In a crime like this, Agbuya said: “mahirap maiwasan dahil alitan nilang mag-asawa yun pero we did our part as law enforcers and we consider the case closed dahil nahuli na lahat ng involve sa krimen.”
Arrested within minutes after the commission of the crime by roving Tanods, the gunman and his cohorts positively identified the live-in partner of the victim, 40-year-old Abegail Esteleydes Belarmino of Calaca, Batangas and is currently living in Brgy. San Antonio STC, as the mastermind of the crime.
“She seems battered, psychologically bothered but what’s regretful was for her to hire a contract killer when she can easily file a case against him thinking na co-chairman pa yata sya ng isang grupo na tumutulong sa ating (kapulisan),” confided chief Agbuya. “Sayang.”
A graduate of the PNPA in Sta. Rosa, Cavite, Agbuya also debunked insinuations of some quarters that STC is a preferred site for drug dealing or transaction.
“Tungkol sa drugs hindi siya mataas. Sa transit point per se na malaki, no. Hindi. Talagang transit lang siguro. They are just passing. This of the fact that wala man silang ibang dadaanan kundi dito sa atin,” Agbuya said.
The chief also appealed to Tomasinos to have more patience with the police force’s strict implementation of health protocols.
“We have a strict implementation of health protocols. Sana maintindihan ito ng mga kababayan natin. Our police will accost violators regardless of kung sino man sila.
But we don’t arrest them. Instead, we give them face masks and tell them to follow minimum health protocols,” says Agbuya who assumed his post only last November 1, 2020.
Under his watch, police visibility has also been ramped up against criminality in STC, and this significantly reduced commission of crimes and at the same time sends a strong signal to people to strictly follow health protocols.
“Konting tiis lang at para sa atin lahat ito,” Agbuya ended.