Ex-cop Jonel Nuezca's remains buried in Pangasinan

Dismissed Police Senior Master Sergeant Jonel Nuezca — who was caught on video shooting two neighbors in Tarlac last year — was laid to rest in Pangasinan over the weekend.

Nuezca’s remains were buried in Urdaneta City in Pangasinan, based on a report on GMA’s “Balitang Amianan” which was uploaded on its official Facebook account on Sunday.

The former policeman was pronounced dead at 6:44 p.m. on Tuesday, November 30, 2021, after he was reported to have been brought unconscious to the New Bilibid Prison Hospital by his fellow inmates after experiencing dizziness.

Further details have yet to be released regarding his death, which comes over three months after he was found guilty of murdering his neighbors, mother and son Sonia and Frank Anthony Gregorio, due to an altercation regarding a “boga” explosion and right of way.

Nuezca was sentenced to reclusion perpetua by the Paniqui, Tarlac Regional Trial County Branch 106 for each count of murder, and was ordered to pay damages of P952,560 to the Gregorio family.

He earlier pleaded not guilty during the arraignment and pre-trial conduced in January, even after video footage showed him shooting and killing his neighbors in broad daylight.

Reports indicate that the police officer was no stranger to administrative cases. In December 2020 he was demoted one rank over a case in 2014 when he was reported to have extorted money from a tricycle driver and a passenger when he was still assigned in Taguig.

He also faced a grave misconduct case in May 2019, and a homicide case in December 2019. Both were dismissed due to lack of substantial evidence.

Nuezca had also been slapped with a "serious neglect of duty" charge after he failed to attend a court hearing as a prosecution witness in a drug case in 2016. The case was dropped and closed.

A less grave neglect of duty charge was also filed against Nuezca in April 2014 for refusing to take a drug test. Records show that he left the testing area without permission from authorities, prompting him to be penalized with a 31-day suspension.

Before this, Nuezca faced an administrative case for grave misconduct in 2013, but the case was dropped and closed. —LBG, GMA News