Cebu ‘pusher’ murdered a week after heeding call to surrender

INQUIRER.NET FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY, Philippines — A confessed drug pusher was killed by still unknown assailants in Barangay Tungkop, Minglanilla town, on Sunday, a week after he surrendered to the police.

Samuel Labajo Calinawan, 36, was walking toward the neighborhood bakery at 12:50 a.m. when shot.

The assailants left a cardboard sign with a handwritten message that read: “Pusher kami, kamo sunod (We are pushers. You are next).”

SPO2 Oliver Dacua, duty desk officer of Minglanilla police, said Calinawan was a known drug peddler in Sitio Estaca, Barangay Tunghaan.

Calinawan was among self-confessed peddlers and addicts who presented themselves to the police last week during the Oplan Tokhang, a campaign where police knock on the houses of drug suspects to ask them to surrender and mend their ways.

The victim suffered bullet wounds in the back and the back of the head.

Recovered from the scene were three calibre-45 bullet shells, a cellular phone and P340 cash./rga