Amid street executions in Cebu, new group appears
CEBU CITY—Vigilante-style killings of drug suspects are no longer new to the city but what appears to be a vigilante group calling itself CCDS is.
Whether its existence is real or the work of criminals trying to divert attention away from the killings here is still uncertain. But the deaths are.
In the village of Talamban, a carpenter was strumming his guitar while having a party with friends past midnight on Saturday when a lone gunman came 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 told police that the gunman boarded a getaway motorcycle driven by a male companion.
PO3 Cristobal Geronimo, of the city police’s homicide section, said policemen found the note near the body of the victim.
Mystery
“This is the first time we saw a note with the mark CCDC on it. I don’t know what this means,” said Geronimo.
“It could be Cebu City Death Squad, but we couldn’t make any conclusions for now. We need to investigate,” he said.
Chief Supt. Noli Talino, Central Visayas police director, said he ordered the Cebu City police office to “seriously” look into the matter but cautioned investigators against jumping to conclusions.
“Anybody can write or claim that they are (members of) CCDS but in reality they are just cohorts of the victims,” Talino said in a text message.
“That’s why we’re very careful,” he added.
From July 27-29, an average of two drug suspects daily had been gunned down by unidentified assailants in the city.
The killings are committed at night with most of the victims being killed by motorcycle-riding men.
In the province of Cebu, at least 19 suspected drug pushers had been shot dead by still unidentified suspects since July 1.
The most recent casualties are two suspected drug pushers in Barangay Looc, Danao City, northern Cebu province. Near their bodies was a note that read “I’m a pusher.”
The Inquirer tried but failed to get comments from Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña by phone.
In 2004 to 2006, vigilante-style killings were reported almost daily in local and national papers. Newspaper reports counted 168 victims.
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 is to run after crime suspects in response to the series of robbery-killings that swept 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 Summit.
The scene in 2004, however, is starting to recur as President Duterte launched an intensified campaign against crimes, particularly drug trafficking.
