NPA rebel-turned-drug pusher gunned down in Lucena

LUCENA CITY – A former communist New People’s Army rebel-turned-drug pusher and hit-man for a big-time local drug trafficker was gunned down inside his residence on Friday midnight, police said.

Supt. Dennis de Leon, Lucena police chief, said Danilo Enopia Morsiquillo alias “Danilo Lusterio/Arman Alcala”, 61, and his live-in partner Milacris Lincuran were sleeping inside the room of their house at Saint Jude Village in Barangay Cotta when two unidentified men forcibly entered and shot Morsiquillo dead using a caliber .45 pistol at around 11 p.m. The suspects immediately escaped, leaving Lincuran unhurt.

Police said the victim, a former communist guerilla, was included in the police drug watch list and allegedly served as gunman of one of the city’s big-time drug pushers Cerilo “Athel” Alcala.

Cerilo, younger brother of former Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, was arrested by Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) operatives in 2008 in a raid on the ancestral house of the Alcalas inside the former pier in the village of Cotta on the outskirts of the city. Cerilo was freed from prison two years ago but allegedly returned to his illegal drug trade, prompting police to put him high on the drug watch-list.

Meanwhile, another suspected drug pusher Elmer Morpeal Cairo, 33, was found dead on a roadside in Barangay San Agustin, Tiaong town on Friday morning, Chief Insp. Alvin Consolacion, Tiaong police chief, said. The victim’s head, which was covered with a shirt and wrapped with packaging tape, had a gunshot wound. Two empty shells from a caliber .45 pistol were found at the crime scene. CDG