Batangas drug group eyed in police official’s slay

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna—Police are following leads that a “big” illegal drug group based in Batangas was behind the murder of a high-ranking police official in the province.

Chief Superintendent Gil Meneses, Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) police director, on Wednesday said members of a special task group formed to investigate the murder of Supt. Rodney Ramirez were in Batangas City and Taal town for follow-up operations.

“We have evidence recovered from the crime scene that could lead us (to the drug group),” Meneses said, referring to the Mitsubishi L-300 van the suspects abandoned about 200 meters from the crime scene.

Meneses said they contacted the original owner of the van but learned that the vehicle had been resold several times already.

“We are tracing those people to whom the vehicle was last sold,” he said.

Ramirez was shot dead Tuesday morning while biking for his morning exercise in Barangay (village) Butong in Taal, Batangas.

Reports said the van bumped Ramirez before the suspects, at least six men, stepped out with two of them shooting the victim dead.

Meneses said Ramirez, who was previously chief of the Batangas police intelligence branch before he was last assigned at the provincial holding administration office, worked on a case that involved a syndicate in the province pushing “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride).

Meneses, however, refused to elaborate as investigation is continuing.

Emerson Margate, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency regional chief, in a separate phone interview, identified the cities of Batangas and Tanauan as hot spots of shabu trade.

He said Batangas drug groups operate as far as Quezon and Mindoro provinces.

Without linking it to the Ramirez’s slay, Margate said, “based on our experience, drug groups in Tanauan (City) are known to retaliate.”

He said that in 2009 alone, at least six PDEA agents and assets were slain in that city.