Fresh blood was spilled on the streets with the killing of six men—two of them shot by the Manila police and four by unidentified gunmen in Pasay City.
The four victims of apparent vigilante attacks were found in different locations in Pasay between late Friday night and early Saturday.
The body of 50-year-old Redentor Manalang, a tricycle driver, was found by bystanders around 9:30 p.m. Friday at the corner of Zamora and Protacio Streets, according to the city police chief, Senior Supt. Nolasco Bathan.
Manalang was shot three times in the body and, like many others killed in this manner over the past few weeks, had a carton sign placed on his body tagging him as a drug pusher.
Around two hours later, another body was found in front of the GSIS Building on Diokno Boulevard shortly after security guards in the area heard gunshots, Bathan said.
The victim, whom police have yet to identify at press time, bore multiple gunshot wounds in his body. Again, there was a cardboard sign calling him a drug addict and a thief.
Target: pedicab man
Shortly before 1 a.m., Michael Siaron, a 30-year-old pedicab driver, was waiting for passengers on Edsa near Pasay Rotonda when he was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle, Bathan said.
The suspects, who had helmets on and fled via Edsa’s northbound lane, left a cardboard sign at the crime scene with the message: “I’m a drug pusher, do not emulate me.”
Another pedicab driver, Merito Broqueza, was grazed by a stray bullet on his waist and was treated at Pasay City General Hospital.
Around the same time Siaron was killed, 33-year-old Ryan Alfred Esquivel was also gunned down by two bike-riding men on Leveriza Street. Bathan said family members rushed Esquivel to the hospital but the victim died along the way.
Esquivel got his cardboard sign, too: “Drug pusher, thief.”
In Manila, two men were killed by the police on Friday night for allegedly resisting arrest and firing back at the lawmen.
The Manila Police District (MPD) said its San Nicolas station received a tip that Dennis Ragub, alias “Buwaya,” and Frank Bural, alias “Panke,” 29, were taking drugs at a house on Sevilla Street, Binondo.
A team was sent to arrest them but the two men allegedly drew .38-cal. revolvers and shot back at the officers, forcing the latter to fire back.
An MPD report said a hand grenade, five sachets of suspected “shabu,” an improvised tooter and burner, and pieces of aluminum foil were recovered from Ragub and Bural—who were also tagged as robbers who victimized vendors in Divisoria.