DENR man’s death tied to drugs

KORONADAL CITY—An employee of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), who was killed by still unknown men on Monday, was allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade, police said.

Supt. Barney Condes, city police chief, identified the fatality as Noel Dungca, 54, a forester and DENR regional program coordinator, who was on the police watch list for drug traffickers.

“As to who silenced him, we are still investigating,” Condes told reporters. He said he might have been killed by his acquaintances who are into the illegal drug trade, but he did not elaborate.

Condes said the police was to conduct a drug buy-bust against Dungca before he was executed.

Dungca, who graduated from the University of the Philippines Los Baños in Laguna, was driving his black motorbike near San Antonio Subdivision Phase 2 in Barangay Sta Cruz when he was attacked at 9:30 a.m.

Policemen recovered five empty shells for a .45-caliber pistol. Edwin O. Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao