5 more drug war deaths in 12 hrs

AWOL policeman Bobby Orit and his companion Danilo Guevarra lie dead in front of a store at the Aroma Compound in Vitas, Tondo, following a “shootout” with Manila policemen on Thursday. Investigators say the two men, the targets of a buy-bust, shot first after they sensed they were dealing with undercover lawmen. According to Inquirer.net’s “Kill List,” as of of 12 p.m., Thursday, 331 people have died either in police operations or vigilante attacks since the Duterte administration took over on June 30. (See https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/794598/kill-list-drugs-duterte). RAFFY LERMA

OVER a 12-hour period, the body count in the Duterte administration’s all-out war on drugs and criminality went up by five.

The fatalities from the cities of Manila and Caloocan included a policeman who shot it out with his colleagues, and a man jailed for drug possession who tried to take an officer’s gun inside a police station.

In Caloocan, PO1 Jordan Alcova shot and killed Gerald dela Cruz, 21, who was earlier arrested for drug possession, after the latter allegedly grabbed the gun of another policeman.

In Manila, four people, including PO1 Bobby Orit who used to be assigned to the National Capital Region Police Office before he went absent without official leave, were killed in buy-bust operations after they reportedly resisted.

According to MPD Station 1 head Supt. Redentor Ulsano, Orit and Danilo Guevarra were the targets of a drug bust which took place around 2 a.m. Thursday at Building 13, Temporary Housing in Vitas, Tondo.

Both took out guns after they allegedly sensed they were dealing with undercover policemen. Recovered from them were two .38-caliber revolvers, seven casings and seven sachets of suspected “shabu.”

Also killed in alleged shootouts during separate drug busts were Eric Caliclic and a still unidentified man. In drug operations, undercover policemen are supposed to know the name or even alias of their targets.

SALVAGE VICTIMS Two women, whom police described as suspected drug pushers, lie dead just outside Paco Park in Manila, their hands bound and their faces covered in duct tape. They had been shot. RAFFY LERMA

Slain women near park

Also in Manila, the bodies of two women were found near Paco Park on Thursday morning, their heads wrapped in duct tape and their hands tied behind them.

PO2 Amelito Lopez of the Manila Police District homicide section identified the women as Janice Peralta and Rachel Santiago. The motive for their killing remained under investigation. TVJ

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