Top drug suspect shot dead in Compostela Valley
TAGUM CITY – A man, who had been tagged as among the top drug personalities in Monkayo town in Compostela Valley, was shot dead by unidentified assailants at the town center on Tuesday, the police reported on Wednesday.
Supt. Jay Dema-ala, Monkayo police station chief, identified the man as Arnel Manalo, 42, a resident of Poblacion village in Monkayo.
Dema-ala said Manalo was buying grilled chicken at a stall near the town’s public market around 4:30 p.m. when a male assailant shot him several times in the head using a handgun. Manalo died instantly. The suspect then hopped on a waiting motorcycle driven by a companion and fled.
Manalo, according to Dema-ala, was number 1 on the list of alleged drug pushers in the mining town and among the 1,784 drug suspects who had surrendered to the local police following the nationwide crackdown on illegal drugs that began July 1.
“We had monitored he went back to selling shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) even after surrendering,” Dema-ala told Inquirer by mobile phone, adding an investigation was now being conducted by police to identify and arrest Manalo’s attackers.
The police official said the victim was the third drug personality killed in Monkayo since July 1. The two other suspects were killed during anti-drugs operations carried out by the local police. CDG
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