Slain DENR forester linked to illegal drugs – Koronadal police

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

KORONADAL CITY – Police here said they have received information that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) employee who was killed Monday by still unidentified men was involved in the illegal drug trade.

Supt. Barney Condes, the city police chief, said forester Noel Dungca, 54 and DENR regional program coordinator, was on the police illegal drug watchlist.

“As to who silenced him, we are still investigating,” Condes told reporters. He refused to elaborate.

Dungca, who finished a degree in forestry at the University of the Philippines (UP) Los Baños in Laguna, was driving his black motorbike near San Antonio Subdivision phase 2, Barangay Sta Cruz, when gunmen shot him dead at 9:30 a.m. Monday

Responding scene of the crime operatives recovered five empty shells for a .45 caliber pistol.

Condes said Dungca might have been killed by his acquaintances involved in the illegal drug trade.

He said the local police was to conduct an illegal drug buy-bust against Dungca before he was executed. SFM