Couple ‘into drugs’ killed after neighbors air clamor

A COUPLE were found dead in Las Piñas City on Tuesday, a few days after their neighbors aired a clamor to have them evicted from their compound because of their alleged drug peddling  activities, a police official said.

The case of Sadam Avia and his common-law wife, Shiela Mariel Pasayon, added to the growing list of killings targeting drug suspects, who were either shot in police operations or slain in vigilante-style attacks, a trend apparently fueled by President Duterte’s anticrime pronouncements.

Described to be in their 20s, Avia and Pasayon were found dead in their tricycle parked at the corner of Mahogany and Sampaloc streets in Barangay Pilar, Las Piñas, around 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to Senior Insp. Romeo Britanico, investigation chief of the city police.

The victims were last seen spending the night in their tricycle—instead of their house located in another barangay—probably because their neighbors earlier “petitioned to have them thrown out’’ of their community due to their alleged involvement in the drug trade, Britanico said. The couple’s home is at Pugad Lawin compound in Barangay Almanza Dos, near the village where they parked their tricycle.

But when asked to detail the petition against the couple, Britanico clarified that it was more of a verbal clamor aired to local authorities, not something formally done in writing.

Also on Tuesday, an alleged drug den operator in Manila was killed in a police operation a day after he refused to join the thousands who had “surrendered” to authorities under a program that encourages drug users and pushers to come out in the open.

The victim, known only as Loloy, exchanged gunfire with members of the Manila Police District’s (MPD) Sta. Cruz station, who found him at his shanty on Elias Street, said Chief Insp. John Guiagui, who led the operation.

Guiagui said they earlier invited Loloy to surrender under the MPD’s Oplan Tokhang on Sunday “but he ignored us and continued selling drugs.” His team recovered 13 sachets of shabu, a .22-caliber pistol and several rounds of ammunition at the shanty, he said.

In Pasay, two more suspected drug pushers were killed in separate attacks carried out by motorcycle-riding gunmen Tuesday night. Ace Cemetara was shot dead at 7:30 p.m. on M. Dela Cruz Street, where the assailants also left a sign on his body saying he “refused to stop selling drugs.”

Two persons were hit by stray bullets. One of them, Ma. Victoria Aguilar Javier, the wife of a village councilor in Barangay 130, Zone 13, died in the hospital. The other victim, Pepito Jimilo, was also hospitalized.

About two hours later, Ramon Francisco, whom the police also described as a drug peddler, was shot on Taylo Street. He was brought to Manila Sanitarium where he was declared dead on arrival.  With Erika Sauler and Faye Orellana