Fr. Valmoria (left) talks to Monsignor Elmer Abacahin about his two-hour ordeal. (photos by froilan gallardo)
By FROILAN GALLARDO
Special Correspondent
NAAWAN, Misamis Oriental—“I never felt my life was in danger when I was with him,” Naawan parish priest Roniedon Valmoria said of the 33-year-old musician who held him inside the convent at the San Labrador parish church on Wednesday.
Valmoria said he had known the suspect, Loverton Ruedas, who used to be in his choir at the parish church.
“I can only talk about what transpired inside the convent when he came to me,” the priest said.
Valmoria said Ruedas wept as he and the priest talked.
“He was scared that he would be killed by the policemen. I too was scared that there was already a sniper waiting for an opportunity to shoot Ruedas,” the priest said.
Valmoria said, luckily, cooler heads prevailed and there was a peaceful outcome of the incident.
Naawan town police chief Francis Estigoy said Ruedas had a brief altercation that resulted in a brief exchange of gunfire between him and policemen at the Naawan police station.
Chief Insp. Estigoy said sensing the arrival of more policemen, Ruedas fled to the convent just across the street from the police station.
He said once inside the convent, Ruedas allegedly held the priest for more than two hours.
“Fr. Valmoria clearly did not have the freedom to walk away from him,” Estigoy said.
Estigoy later surrendered to Fr. Valmoria after a negotiating team led by Misamis Oriental Gov. Yevgeny Emano arrived at the scene.
He said Ruedas surrendered a Chinese-made Norinco cal. 45 pistol with seven bullets.
Estigoy said they are filing a illegal detention case against Ruedas and possibly, an illegal possession of firearms case if it is found that the pistol have no license.
Gov. Emano said Ruedas is an “asset” of the police who had a few run-ins with the law enforcers.
Ruedas’s relatives, however, told reporters that the musician is an upright businessman who owns a store selling musical instruments in nearby Manticao town.
They said Ruedas went to the Naawan police station to look for his relatives who were accused by the local policemen of shabu pushers.
Reuben Joseph Israel, an employee at the Naawan municipal hall said Ruedas and a policeman whom he identified as a certain Reyes, traded gunshots after a brief altercation.
“Reyes saw that Ruedas had a gun tuck in his waist. So he pulled his own gun and fired at Ruedas,” Israel narrated.
Israel said the shots missed and Ruedas ran across the street towards the convent when he saw other policemen coming to aid Reyes.
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