Alagar exec: Deloso not missing, in a safehouse

A CAMP ALAGAR official yesterday brushed off reports that wounded Supt. Michael John Deloso has gone missing.

Neither did Deloso sneak out of the Northern Mindanao Medical Center — “he was discharged,” said Supt. Surki Sereñas, Camp Alagar spokesman.

“Kon tino-od nga na-missing siya, lahi na pud na nga krimin nga sulbaron sa police. Pero tino-od, na-a ra man siya,” Sereñas said.

He said Deloso, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds, including one in the face, was out of harm’s way in a safehouse.

But Sereñas said he was unaware of Deloso’s exact whereabouts although he and the wounded official talked over the phone.

This paper repeatedly tried to contact Deloso through his cellphone. The number could not be reached.

Sereñas told the Gold Star Daily that he and Deloso talked on the phone about Friday, supposedly after the wounded official was discharged from the hospital.

He said Deloso did not sound like he was interested in pursuing a case against those behind the attempt on his life.

“I asked him if he knew who was responsible for the attack. He said, ‘Bro, I’m leaving everything to God,’” said Sereñas, quoting Deloso.

He said Deloso also told him that he was already “happy” that he survived the ambush.

Sereñas said he could not say if Deloso left NMMC undetected by police officers who were assigned to provide security to him.

In earlier interviews, police said the room of Deloso was under tight watch and police officers, some in civilian clothes, were guarding the state-owned hospital from within and outside.

Sereñas said he was unaware if Deloso was escorted by security aides from the hospital to an undisclosed safehouse. Neither could he say if the police guards knew that Deloso was going to leave the hospital.

But Sereñas said it is possible that security arrangements were made with their superiors.

It was the kind of information, he said, that is unavailable in his level.

The deputy chief of Camp Alagar’s Regional Police Strategy Management Unit was wounded in a broad daylight ambush while he was driving his near the capitol in Nov. 20. The van’s bullet-proof windshield and side windows cushioned the impact of the attack although some of the bullets got through.

Police have yet to identify the two gunmen who rode a motorcycle.

Sereñas said he has remained optimistic that the case would be solved by the police and that those behind the gun attack would be identified and charged in court. But he said Deloso would need to help investigators.

“Siya ra man gyud ang makasulti kinsay iyang kontra so karon nga stable na siya, masulbad ra gihapon nang iyang kaso,” he said. (Herbie Gomez and Nitz Arancon)