SPO1 Adonis Dumpit, a sharpshooter formerly with Cebu City’s Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team and known terror to street criminals, finds comfort in Bohol.

In complete uniform, Dumpit reported to the Bohol Provincial Police Office (BPPO) at Camp Dagohoy in Tagbilaran City at 10 a.m. last Friday before Police Chief Insp. Basiledes Balistoy of the of the Human Resource and Doctrine Development (HRDD) branch.

Police provincial director, Senior Supt. Felipe Natividad, was in Cebu then and is expected to give his word to welcome Dumpit this week.

Dumpit is one of the three police escorts of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña who had been relieved and ordered transferred to Bohol.

The two others- -SPO2 Ritchell Tejano and PO3 Romeo Batuhan- -are yet to report to BPPO.

Dumpit had just released from Leyte Regional Penitentiary (LRP) of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in the latter part of May this year after posting bail at P250,000 and had been back to service in the middle of June.

He was charged with murder for killing a 17-year-old robbery suspect in Villagonzalo 2 of barangay Tejero, Cebu City in December 2004.

The court, however, downgraded the case to homicide to which he was convicted in August 2014. His administrative case was dismissed.

Dumpit has been in police service for 20 years and had been known to fellow police officers as a sharpshooter and soft-spoken.

BOHOL JOURNEY

Although it was unexpected on his part, Dumpit said he is comfortable in Bohol as he had once been assigned in Bilar “as a member of the Regional Mobile Force in 1992 to 1994”, as earlier reported in the national media.

He just opened himself to any assignment that would be given to him, but he prefers to be in the field rather than in the office.

In coming to Bohol, Dumpit had to withdraw all that is left in his ATM, the amount of P1,000, since he “had no salary for two months” was back to service.

Regional media reported that Osmeña is actually the one worried now of Dumpit and not the other way around, saying the latter made many enemies in Bohol.

The atmosphere in Bohol, however, is actually the opposite since the public and the police officers welcomed Dumpit positively.

Osmeña’s worry came from the alleged death threats that Dumpit had since he got out of jail.

But for Dumpit, he said he is never worried being in Bohol, saying that the people here are mostly law-abiding.

When interviewed by regional media, Dumpit cited the hospitality of Boholanos who have the culture of offering food to acquaintances who visit their houses which he said is not the practice in Cebu.

HARD TIMES

Dumpit had earlier told regional media that during the hard times, he only had Osmeña by his side.

It was even Osmeña’s son, Miguel, who fetched him from Leyte to Cebu on board a private plane.

The resolution on his temporary release came from the 20th Division of the Court of Appeals (CA).

While on bail, Dumpit still to “appear in court whenever summoned and not leave the country while his appeal is pending”.

After the lower court convicted him, Dumpit filed an appeal before the CA.

TURNING POINT

The 17-year-old, who was tagged by one of the victims as the one who robbed two jeepneys in the North Reclamation Area on December 14, 2014 to which Dumpit had responded, was the same boy he had arrested two years earlier.

The first time that he had arrested the boy, Dumpit even said the mother had even sought his help as the boy became out of control already and she could not afford “to send him to a drug rehabilitation center”.

On December 14, 2014, Dumpit and another cop, had tracked down the boy in their village as positively identified by one of the robbery victims who accompanied them and the hot pursuit resulted to a shootout.

However, the lower court found it was a homicide and sentenced Dumpit to serve six to nine years in jail and to pay the boy’s family P50,000.