DAGUPAN CITY—A three-minute video showing the failure of three policemen to disarm a gun-toting brother of a town mayor in front of a mall in Rosales town in Pangasinan province on Sunday went viral in social media in the last two days and enraged netizens.
The armed man, Julio Pagador, 55, a government employee and brother of Rosales Mayor Susan Casareno, was later shot and wounded by a policeman outside the mall.
As of 1 p.m. on Tuesday, the video had 1,113,688 views and 57,216 shares since lawyer Genaro Mariñas posted it on his Facebook page at 7:56 p.m. on Sunday.
In an e-mail interview, Mariñas said he spotted on Sunday the armed man standing under a tree along the national highway at the exit of a short service road fronting SM Rosales and quickly took the video using his mobile phone.
The man was harassing pedestrians about 5:30 p.m. that day.
Mariñas said Pagador saw him taking the video and chased him away. Mariñas said he drove off in a motorcycle, which crashed, leaving him with bruised knees and arms.
“I asked myself, what if I were with my kids at that time and he chased us? This is why I decided to continue taking the video and I was asking the policemen to arrest the man,” Mariñas said.
In the video, Pagador was shown holding his gun and talking to three uniformed men. One of the uniformed men left seconds later.
Pagador then tucked his gun into his waistband and walked toward the main walkway leading to the mall’s main entrance. People on the walkway started running away from Pagador.
Mariñas could be heard in the video shouting at the uniformed men to arrest Pagador.
Seconds later, a shot rang out but the uniformed men merely stood and watched. Two more shots rang out when the video caught Pagador moving toward one of the uniformed men.
A fourth shot was heard and Pagador doubled over, gripping his abdomen. He also let go of his pistol.
As soon as Pagador fell, one of the uniformed men unleashed a flying kick and then wrestled Pagador to the ground.
Pagador was later taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Supt. Ferdinand de Asis, provincial police spokesperson, said only one policeman, PO3 Victoriano Natividad, was at the scene. Natividad was accompanied by two police trainees undergoing field training.
De Asis said Natividad tried to convince Pagador to surrender his gun, a .45 cal. pistol. He said Natividad was just waiting for the perfect moment to seize Pagador so he was allowed to walk away, toward the mall’s main entrance.
“When Natividad saw Pagador poking the gun at him, he shot him,” De Asis said.
“The one seen leaving the scene was a trainee, who was told by the only policeman there, Natividad, to get the police car so they could easily take Pagador to the police precinct when he is arrested,” De Asis said.
“The two trainees, PO1 Arnold Sumangil Jr. and PO1 Rolando Miniano, were unarmed because, technically, they are not yet policemen. They have not graduated yet,” he said.
He said a string of criminal cases had been filed against Pagador, including grave threats, alarm and scandal, and assault upon a person of authority.
De Asis also said Senior Supt. Reynaldo Biay, provincial director, had ordered an investigation of the incident to determine the administrative liabilities of the personnel during the incident.
“Clearly, personnel shown in the video committed lapses. There was inaction on their part,” De Asis said.
He said that except for Pagador, no one else was hurt during the incident. All shots were fired upward, hitting the mall entrance’s ceiling.
Alex Mirador, who was with his family near the mall entrance at that time, said in a post on his Facebook page that shoppers inside the mall panicked.
“There were a lot of children with their parents in the mall. Good thing the shoppers did not stampede but they were running in all directions. It was a traumatic experience for my wife and daughter,” Mirador said in his post.
“I must commend the mall guards though, because even though they were not armed, they stood their ground at the mall’s entrance in case the gunman decided to go window shopping,” he said.
Mirador said that in the ensuing panic, all stores inside the mall lowered their grill, thinking there was a hostage situation.
Sto. Tomas Mayor Timoteo Villar III said his mother and other family members were inside the mall at that time and they were “traumatized” by the incident.
“My mom was trembling in fear,” Villar said. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon