CEBU CITY – At least seven persons were killed in separate police operations in Cebu while two more men believed to be victims of summary execution were found in Talisay City.
Those gunned down during the police operations from Thursday to Friday noon reportedly tried to shoot it out with the operatives, prompting the latter to retaliate and kill the suspects, said the heads of the police offices that conducted the simultaneous raids.
Four of the fatalities were suspected drug pushers, including a man who the police believed was a supplier of party drugs here, while the rest were targeted for alleged possession of unlicensed firearms.
Police were still investigating the circumstances behind the killing of the alleged “salvage” victims whose bodies were found in Barangay Maghaway, Talisay City on Friday dawn.
The killings came barely a day after President Duterte announced that his anti-drugs campaign would be “harsher in the days to come.”
Chief Supt. Debold Sinas, director of the Central Visayas police, ordered the conduct of simultaneous raids in Cebu in the hope of getting rid of loose firearms and illegal drugs.
Unfortunately, Senior Supt. Royina Garma, director of the Cebu City Police Office, said some of the targets engaged the operatives in a shootout, prompting them to defend themselves.
Among those killed were two tanods and a wife of the latter—the three of whom were residents of Barangay Lusaran, Cebu City; a man in Barangay Zapatera, Cebu City; two men from Cordova town, Cebu, and another person in Daanbantayan town, north Cebu.
Garma said the barangay tanods had expired gun licenses and were keeping loose firearms. Their names had yet to be released by the police.
Meanwhile, Ken Kenneth Rosales, 31, the person killed in Barangay Zapatera, was an alleged supplier of ecstasy, an illegal drugs.
Garma said they were still trying to determine whether Rosales had links with Ashley Abad, a 19-year-old college student who died after allegedly ingesting a drink laced with ecstasy while attending a pre-Sinulog concert in uptown Cebu City last January 19.
Garma said two other suspects were arrested and pointed at Rosales as their supplier of party drugs or ecstasy.
Rosales was shot by police during a follow-up operation in Zapatera around 2 a.m. on Friday.
In Cordova town, the two suspected drug pushers killed in a buy-bust operation past 11 p.m. on Thursday were identified as Librador Abayan and a certain “Moises.” Both were considered by the provincial police as high-value targets.
In Daanbantayan, the fatality was identified as Cristori Montiadora, a suspected drug personality.
The simultaneous raids were part of the “synchronized enhanced managing police operation” in Cebu. /lzb