EJKs claim 11 more across Metro
A barangay in Pasig City has lost its 10th resident to extrajudicial killings (EJKs) being linked to the war on illegal drugs under the Duterte administration.
In Makati, two men described by the police as drug users were in a roadside drinking session when gunmen on motorbikes approached and shot them at close range.
In Pasay, a man was found dead in the toilet of a house, with a placard next to his body calling him “a fixer, a pusher and a liar.”
In Quezon City, four more people—three of them women—were gunned down by masked killers.
As the bodies kept piling up, “Maria,” who grieves for one of the latest victims, sighed in anguish: “I voted for someone who is now killing our own children. That’s what people are telling me nowadays.”
Afraid to give her real name in this report, Maria is a relative of Nick Villegas, a 37-year-old tricycle driver who became the 10th resident of Barangay Mangahan, Pasig, to be killed by unidentified assailants since July, according to the police.
Earlier complaints
Villegas, a father of six, had been the subject of complaints in the barangay over his drug use and was on the local watch list of known pushers of “shabu,” said Edgardo Casili of the village security force.
He earlier surrendered to the police under the Oplan Tokhang antidrug campaign but continued using drugs, Casili said of the victim in an Inquirer interview Tuesday.
According to a report reaching Senior Supt. Orlando Yebra, Jr., the city police chief, Villegas and his live-in partner Josa Marana were knocking on the house of his father Gaudencio on Quezon Street when they were shot by one of two men on a motorbike around 1 a.m. Tuesday.
Villegas died on the spot while Marana took a hit in the stomach. She was brought to a hospital where she was set to undergo an operation.
Witnesses recalled spotting at least four motorcycle riders who were waiting in the area moments before the shooting. One rider was seen texting while another sped off apparently when he noticed he was being observed.
Barangay Manggahan desk officer Domingo Becinal said that about four hours before Villegas was shot, he was accosted by village watchmen for creating a disturbance in the neighborhood and was released around 12:50 a.m.
Two more Pasig kills
An hour earlier, also in Pasig, construction worker Jessie Pagaduan Jr., 34, was shot dead along Eastbank Road, Barangay Sta Lucia.
Barangay security force members told the investigator, SPO1 Hermel Vergara, that Pagaduan was included on the local drug watch list and had also surrendered under Tokhang.
Around 7:40 p.m. Monday, Rolando Nebril, 30, was also shot dead while taking a rest inside his house that stood along a creek in Lu pang Pari, Barangay San Miguel, also in Pasig.
Like the other two victims in Pasig, Nebril was also a known user and pusher in the barangay, Yebra said.
In Mandaluyong, Milton Castillo, 27, was shot dead by four men on two motorcycles around 1:30 pm on Tuesday along Neptali Gonzales Street in Barangay Harapin ang Bukas, according to the local police report.
Makati attack
In Makati, Randolf Arevalo Greyon, 21, and Ace Funollera Bacorro, 18, were having a drink with friends on Rockefeller corner Binay Streets in Barangay San Isidro, when four gunmen on motorbikes appeared out of nowhere around 2 a.m.
The two back riders then pulled out pistols and fired several shots at Greyon while Bacorro and his others friends ran away. The attack was captured on a closed-circuit television camera in the area.
The shooters chased Bacorro and shot him in the chest, before fleeing toward Batangas Street.
Both victims were pronounced dead on arrival at San Juan de Dios Hospital in Pasay.
Makati police chief Senior Supt. Milo Pagtalunan, quoting barangay officials, said both suspects were suspected drug users or pushers in the area.
No record?
But the Inquirer checked the records of the Makati Police Station Anti-Illegal Drugs (SAID) and did not found the name of the victims.
A SAID officer, however, said there were two persons on its database whose information matched those of the victims, but under different first names: Steven Bacorro Arevalo, 21; and Joel Funollera Bacorro, 18; both residents of Rockefeller Street.
These two men and another Rockefeller resident surrendered under Tokhang on Aug. 24 and were listed as “occasional users”. They were not included on the drug watch list.
Different names
The SAID officer explained it was not unusual for drug personalities to alter their personal information, especially their names, when surrendering to authorities.
In Quezon City, three women and a man were gunned down in separate incidents from Monday night to early Tuesday morning, according to the police
According to a report to Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, Quezon City Police District director, Gloria Melgar, 42, and Anthony Parilla, 24, were killed by mask-wearing men around 7 p.m. Monday on Kasayahan Street, Barangay Batasan Hills.
A witness, who turned out to be Melgar’s sister, was reportedly walking along the road with the two victims when one of the gunmen yelled at her: “Go away! Don’t come closer! Run!”
Drug tests
She followed the order and immediately ran, before hearing successive gunshots and later finding the victims bloodied on the pavement.
QCPD reports said Melgar and Parilla were invited to the barangay hall earlier in the day for a drug test.
In the same barangay, around Tuesday midnight, Herminia Laros, 45, was at the wake of her neighbor on Congressional Road when shot in the face also by gunmen on motorbikes. Laros died on the spot.
Two hours later, in Barangay Payatas, Analyn Baquilar-Tolentino, 41, and her companions were playing cards also at a wake on Mayon Street, when six assailants on three motorcycles opened fire on the group.
Tolentino later succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds at Far Eastern University Hospital. Four other people at the wake were also wounded.
Dumped in toilet
In Pasay, the body of a drug suspect who was also branded as a “fixer”—or someone who offers to expedite government transactions or work around regulations, usually through bribery—was found inside a toilet of a house on Electrical Road, Barangay 191, around 2 p.m.
A police report identified the victim as 44-year-old Darwin Nazareno of Barangay Halang, Naic, Cavite. A placard found next to the body carried the message: “I am a fixer, a liar, a drug user. Do not emulate.”
The owner of the house where the body was found was not immediately known.
