Drug packets recovered from Rodriguez massacre site—police

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CAMP VICENTE LIM, Philippines—Police said plastic sachets that contain the residue of suspected shabu have strengthened their initial theory that the massacre that left seven people dead in Rodriguez, Rizal, early Monday involved illegal drugs.

Aside from the recovered evidence, a relative of victims Webb, 40, and Alma Santos, 35, told authorities that the couple was involved in drug pushing.

“The AIDSOTF (Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force of the police) also confirmed to us that (Webb) was on their target list,” said Superintendent Donato Bait, police chief of Rodriguez.

The Santos couple and five other people were shot dead inside the couple’s home in Barangay (village) San Jose at around 1 a.m. on Monday. They were identified as Darmo Rivera, 20; Roberto Talagtag and John Michael Gardose, both 18; and Judy Ann Severo and Joshua Tuazon, both 16, all residents in the village.

“According to the neighbors, it seemed the victims knew their assailants. They heard no commotion or screaming from the house but just a round of shots and after a few minutes, another round,” Bait said.

He said the bodies when found by the police were positioned in such a way that the victims were having a “session” in the living room, except for Alma, whose body was found near the front door.

The others “looked like they were shot as they were seated,” he said.

The house, made of concrete blocks, was on a government relocation site, locally referred to in Rodriguez as “sub-urban.” It had a mezzanine where the couple’s daughters, aged 10 and 13, were asleep before the shooting erupted.

“The children said the gunshots woke them up. When they peeked outside, the people downstairs were already dead,” Bait said.

He said the children saw two men as they left the house and another two waiting outside, but failed to recognize them.

The police recovered at least 20 empty shells from .40- and .45-cal. guns.

Each victim sustained more than one gunshot wound, Bait said. He said they would wait for the results of the drug test conducted on the victims’ remains.