By Jennifer P. Rendon
Another policeman died in an alleged case of accidental gun discharge morning of July 22, 2022 in Jaro, Iloilo City.
Corporal Paul Eric Uyaco, 30, a member of San Miguel Police Station, was found bathed in his blood inside their home at Commission Civil St., Barangay Luna, Jaro around 7:15 a.m. Friday.
Early that morning, Uyaco’s wife, Corporal Louise Kate Uyaco, 32, a member of the Iloilo City Mobile Force Company, claimed that the victim mentioned that his firearm seemed to be malfunctioning.
He allegedly took his firearm to the third floor of their house, which has not been occupied.
As the wife was preparing breakfast, she claimed to have heard a gunfire from the room where her husband was.
She immediately ran upstairs and saw blood oozing from her husband’s right temple.
Captain Eduardo Siacon, Jaro police chief, said that the wife surmised that the firearm may have accidentally discharged, and the bullet hit the victim.
Uyaco suffered a gunshot wound on the right temple, with the bullet exiting the upper portion of his left temple.
The wife called her co-workers and members of the Iloilo City Emergency Responders (ICER) were called in.
Rescuers took him to the nearby West Visayas State University Medical Center. He died around 9:10 a.m.
It was gathered that the victim had been in the uniformed service for five years already.
Police have yet to issue an official report on Uyaco’s death.
PREVIOUS INCIDENTS
Deaths attributed to alleged “accidental gun firing” are nothing new to the police ranks.
On Dec. 30, 2021, Staff Sergeant Erwin Daniel also died from a single bullet wound on the chest.
The incident happened while Daniel, his wife, and their two children – a 4-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy – were billeted in a hotel on Gen. Luna Street, City Proper district, Iloilo City.
On Sept. 5, 2021, a member of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) died in what was also reported to be a case of accidental gun discharge.
Master Sergeant Stephen Aguilar, 39, succumbed to a gunshot on the head.
In the same blotter report, his wife claimed that she tried to wake him up to prepare for duty.
Maloco allegedly got up and took his firearm tucked under the pillows. But his wife claimed that the gun went off.
On July 20, 2021, a rookie policeman was also found lifeless in a secluded area in Miag-ao, Iloilo.
A resident of Barangay Damilisan, Mia-ao discovered the body of Patrolman Marvin del Castillo, a police trainee detailed to the San Joaquin Police Station.
Del Castillo was part of the Pre Basic Internal Security Operation Course (BISOC) trainees sent to different police stations in Iloilo province.
Aside from the gunshot injury, no other wound was found on his body.
There was also the case of a policeman assigned to Iloilo province who was found dead early morning of Sept 26, 2021 in Pavia, Iloilo.
The 39-year-old staff sergeant was a member of the Explosives Ordnance Division (EOD) – K-9 unit, which holds office at the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) headquarters in Camp Sumagaysay, Sta. Barbara, Iloilo.
A neighbor found him lifeless inside the garage of his house in Purok 1, Pavia, Iloilo. Police found no sign of foul play on the victim’s death.
