ILOILO City – Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) director Colonel Kim Legada and Police Station 2 chief Captain Jeffrey Delgado were removed from their posts effective Friday, January 9, over investigative lapses in the death of Dueñas, Iloilo vice mayor Aimee Paz Lamasan.
Higher police authorities flagged shortcomings in the initial police response to Lamasan’s death, underscoring mounting pressure to ensure accountability on the local police leadership in this high-profile case.
The relief was confirmed by Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) director Police Brigadier General Josefino Ligan, who said the action followed findings that standard procedures were not properly observed at the crime scene.
Ligan also announced that Colonel Roland Bulalacao, PRO-6 deputy regional director for Operations, has been designated as officer-in-charge of the ICPO while a permanent replacement is being considered.
Legada and Delgado were reassigned to the PRO-6 regional headquarters.
Vice Mayor Lamasan sustained an abdominal gunshot wound on December 30, 2025 at her residence in La Paz district here, and died the following day.
While authorities have since concluded that the incident was an accidental firing, questions surrounding the city police’s initial handling of the scene prompted intervention from national officials.
Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla of the Department of Interior and Local Government criticized the delayed investigation, noting that the police failed to act immediately after the shooting. Remulla personally traveled to Iloilo on January 7 to look into the matter.
One of the most serious issues, Ligan said, was the failure to immediately deploy the Scene of the Crime Operations (SOCO) team.
“There was an order not to proceed with SOCO. From that point alone, there were already lapses,” Ligan said.
He stressed that established procedures require SOCO to process any crime scene involving a firearm discharge, regardless of initial assessments.
“Any shooting incident requires SOCO processing. It should never be skipped,” he added.
Ligan said an internal investigation is underway to identify who ordered the SOCO team to hold off from responding to the scene at Lamasan’s residence at the posh Puerto Real Subdivision in La Paz.
“We are now determining who gave the order to delay SOCO’s response. That decision affected the integrity of the initial investigation,” he said.
Earlier on Friday, Ligan informed Iloilo City’s Mayor Raisa Treñas of the leadership changes and assured the city government that corrective measures were already in place.
Despite the shake-up, Ligan said security preparations for the Dinagyang Festival remain unaffected.
“The Dinagyang security preparations are already in place. These developments will not affect the overall security plan. All systems are go,” he said.
The PRO-6 chief emphasized that the relief of the two officers was not meant to preempt the outcome of the probe but to uphold accountability and restore public trust.
“This is part of our procedures. When there are lapses, we act. We owe that to the public and to the family of the victim,” Ligan said.
During his visit here recently, Remulla said investigators have ruled out suicide and foul play in the death of Lamasan.
He said evidence gathered by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) showed that Lamasan’s fatal injury resulted from an accidental firing of a firearm, but stressed that the delayed police response undermined proper investigative procedure and fueled public speculation.
“It is fair to conclude that it was death by accident,” Remulla said, citing the location of the incident, the sequence of events, witness accounts, and physical evidence.
“We looked at the location, the sequence of events, the testimonies of those present, and the physical evidence. All of these point to an accidental firing,” he said yesterday.
Remulla, however, flagged the failure of the ICPO to immediately investigate the gunfire incident, noting that police only conducted a probe some 36 hours later, after Lamasan had already died.
“They investigated 36 hours later. When the vice mayor died, that was only when they conducted the investigation,” he said, adding that all gunfire incidents should be investigated at once to preserve evidence and maintain public trust.
According to Remulla, the incident happened while Lamasan and her live-in partner, Lord Byron Torrecarion, were discussing the installation of optics on a firearm. He said Lamasan mistakenly handled the gun, triggering an accidental discharge.
“Apparently, it was a race gun with a very light trigger,” Remulla said. “When she picked it up the wrong way, with her thumb on the trigger, it resulted in an accidental fire that entered her abdomen. The hollow-point bullet caused extensive damage, and fragments were left inside her body.” /PN
