US Lottery Jackpot Winner Fired A Gun

Police Report Confirms

By Alex P. Vidal

A memorandum addressed to the Iloilo Provincial Police Office (IPPO) dated August 21, 2006 signed by Senior Police Officer 4 Danilo Eraste Elumba, officer-in-charge of the Igbaras Municipal Police Station, confirmed that frustrated murder suspect Michael "Mike" Escanlar fired a gun during an argument with complainant Eliseo "Pudoy" Javelosa inside the cockpit in Igbaras, Iloilo last August 20, 2006. Elumba’s report said Escanlar took his "undetermined type of firearm inside his bag and proceeded to (the) gaffer area and fired several times pointing upward." Elumba narrated that Escanlar, a US lottery jackpot winner, "hurriedly left the place" on board a private vehicle.

13 HOLES

Elumba also confirmed that they found 13 holes at the galvanized iron roof of the gaffer area believed to have been hit by the bullets from Escanlar’s firearm stressing that "proper procedure of investigation is being observed at the scene of the incident." Javelosa, 61, retired master chief in the US Navy, and resident of Brgy. Tacas, Jaro, Iloilo City, had filed cases of attempted murder and illegal discharged of firearm against Escanlar of Brgy. 3, Poblacion, Igbaras, Iloilo over the incident. Javelosa alleged that Escanlar got mad, aimed his gun at him and tried to shoot him while they were inside the cockpit when Escanlar’s cocks lost to Javelosa’s cocks. "I urinated in my pants because of fear," said Javelosa who is a former back-to-back judo and wrestling West Coast champion in 1970-71.

DENIAL

However, in his counter-affidavit dated September 20, 2006, Escanlar "vehemently" denied the pointing of any kind of firearm at Javelosa and firing the same at him. "I could not have fired the gun which caused the bullet holes in the eastern portion of the gaffer area’s galvanized iron roof as when I and Eliseo Javelosa had a verbal spat. I was facing towards the west," Escanlar said in his counter-affidavit. "To impute to me the cause of the bullet holes in the gaffer’s area roof will defy the laws of physics." Escanlar called Javelosa "ridiculous" for charging him with attempted murder. "Firing to the air, assuming it to be true for the sake of argument simply negates any intent to kill; such fact clearly negates any intent to kill," he said. He insisted that the gun fire at the gaffer’s area "may have been caused by another person."

‘PITIFUL’

"While it was pitiful for Eliseo Javelosa to have urinated in fright after hearing the gun fire, it is obviously unfair and unjust for him to impute to me a criminal act simply because I was the last person with whom he had an argument with," said Escanlar. Hans Sayno, Escanlar’s lawyer, submitted Escanlar’s counter-affidavit and the affidavits of Escanlar’s witnesses Niel Bucoy and Francisco Delgado Jr. to Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Antonio P. Chin during the preliminary investigation on September 22. Escanlar did not show up while Javelosa and his witness, Noel Palencia, accompanied by their lawyer Pablo Tolentino, were present. Tolentino said both Bucoy and Delgado are bodyguards of Escanlar. /MP mailto:madyaas_pen@yahoo.com