Police ordered to probe alleged Cebu ‘death squad’

CEBU CITY — Is a death squad similar to that in Davao City operating in Cebu City?

A carpenter was strumming his guitar while walking along the road in Barangay Talamban, Cebu City past midnight Saturday when a lone gunman approached him and shot him thrice in the chest.

Rogil Nudalo, 38, slumped on the ground with his guitar. Before leaving the crime scene, the assailant left a handwritten note on a piece of carton that read:  “Pusher, Carnapper, Akyat Bahay (from) CCDS.”

Witnesses later told the police that the gunman boarded a getaway motorcycle which was driven by a male companion.

PO3 Cristobal Geronimo of the Homicide Section of Cebu City Police Office said they found the note near the body of the victim.

“This is the first time we saw a note with the mark ‘CCDS’ on it. I don’t know what this means. It could be Cebu City Death Squad, but we couldn’t make any conclusions for now. We need to investigate,” he said.

READ: Halt to Davao death squad probe hit

Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), said he ordered the Cebu City Police Office to “seriously” look into the matter but cautioned investigators not to easily jump to conclusions.

“Anybody can write or claim that they are CCDS but in reality they are just cohorts of the victims. That’s why we’re very careful,” he said in a text message to the Inquirer.

From July 27 to 29, an average of two suspected drug pushers were gunned down each day by unknown assailants in Cebu City.

All seven persons bit the dust after sundown; most of them were killed by two men on board a single motorcycle.

In the entire province of Cebu, at least 19 suspected drug pushers were shot dead by still unidentified suspects since July 1.

The most recent casualties were two suspected drug pushers in Barangay Looc, Danao City north Cebu. Near their bodies was a note that read “Pusher Ako!”

The Inquirer tried but failed to reach Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña through the phone.

In 2004 to 2006, vigilante-style killings were reported almost daily in local and national papers.

Newspaper reports have counted 168 victims.

READ: THE KILL LIST

No suspect had been brought to court for lack of witnesses and complainants.

At that time, Osmeña offered a cash reward of P20,000 to policemen for every criminal they would “permanently disable and neutralize.”

He also formed the Hunter Team, an elite police unit whose task was to go after crime suspects in response to the series of robbery-killings that hit the city.

Despite his strong stance against crimes, Osmeña denied having a hand in the killings.

In the latter part of 2006, the executions stopped as Cebu prepared for the hosting of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit.

The scene in 2004, however, has been starting to recur as President Rodrigo Duterte launched an intensified campaign against crimes, particularly on illegal drugs. JE