Antidrug pastor shot dead in Cebu

CEBU CITY—A Baptist Church pastor, who actively campaigned against illegal drugs, was shot dead by two unidentified men in Barangay Bonbon in this city on Sunday afternoon, the latest victim in cases of street killings in the Visayas in recent days.

Crisostomo Maternal Jr., an evangelist of the Bonbon Mission Church, was gunned down on the same day a suspected drug lord and four of his underlings were killed in a shootout with Cebu-based policemen in Inabanga town in the island-province of Bohol.

Maternal was driving his motorcycle on his way home when two men on another motorcycle shot him at 5 p.m. He was hit in the left temple and died while being taken to the Perpetual Succor Hospital.

Senior Insp. Elisandro Quijano, homicide section chief of the Cebu City police, said Maternal had tipped off authorities about illegal drug operations in Bonbon.

The victim, he said, was educated people about the ill-effects of drugs through his church sermons.

While their information showed that Maternal was an antidrug crusader, Quijano said police were considering all angles in the probe.

“Personal grudge might also be involved here. So we really have to look at all the possibilities,” Quijano said.

He said Maternal also campaigned for a political group during this year’s elections.

Acting Cebu City Mayor Margot Osmeña said Maternal was one of their leaders in Bonbon, a community about 17 kilometers from the city proper.

Quijano said Maternal had received death threats, sent through text messages, a day before he was killed.

In the wake of Maternal’s death, Quijano advised antidrug crusaders to coordinate with the police should they receive death threats.

“Crusaders help the police in our campaign against illegal drugs. But it’s not easy to have that kind of advocacy. Being an antidrug crusader entails risks. And so, if you received threats, please tell the police,” Quijano said.

About six hours before Maternal was killed, a suspected drug lord and his four companions were slain in a gunfight with policemen in Barangay Cawayan, about 5 km from the town proper of Inabanga in Bohol.

The raiding team, armed with a search warrant, also arrested three suspected illegal drug peddlers and recovered firearms, bullets, two grenades and 42 sachets of suspected shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride), with an estimated value of P3 million.

Insp. Rolando Lumanas Antipolo, Inabanga police chief, identified the fatalities as David Anunciado, a suspected drug lord, and his cohorts Melkin Ohina, Pio Jostol, Alipio Anuta and Leonides Enoc.

Arrested were Rene Petecio, Daria Nuñez and Justino Vistal, all residents of Barangay Cawayan.

The suspects allegedly fired at members of the raiding team who went to Jostol’s house to conduct a search on suspicion that it was being used as a drug den.

“We do not deny the drug trade in Inabanga. That is why, in coordination with other law enforcement units, we have been conducting more operations to curb illegal activities here,” Antipolo said.

The raid in Inabanga came a week after Cebu-based operatives killed Rowen Torrefiel Secretaria and two of his alleged runners on Banacon Island off Getafe town.

Secretaria was tagged as Bohol’s youngest drug lord and was third in Cebu’s list of most wanted illegal drug suspects.

The intensified operations against illegal drugs came in the wake of a strong antidrug policy of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte. With a report from Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Inquirer Visayas