War on drugs kills 5 in QC, Mandaluyong

The government’s unrelenting war on drugs left five suspects, including a former policeman, dead in separate operations on Sunday.

In Quezon City, four men believed to be involved in the drug trade were killed after they got into a shoot-out with policemen.

Quezon City Police District (QCPD) chief Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar identified the fatalities as Anthony Comendo, Raffy Gabo, Marcelo Daa Jr. and a certain “Jess” who was estimated to be between 20 and 25 years old.

Based on an initial report, members of the Batasan police station were conducting anti-drug operations in Purok 9, Bagong Silangan around 4 p.m. on Sunday when they knocked on the house of Daa, a suspected drug addict in the area.

Senior Insp. Emil Garcia, who was heading the “Oplan Tokhang” drive, said they were just about to talk to Daa when shots were fired at them. They fired back, killing the four men inside the house.

Seized from the dead suspects were two .38-cal revolvers, two .45-cal  pistols, two sachets of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride), illegal drug paraphernalia and a weighing scale.

In Mandaluyong City, a dismissed policeman on the police’s drug watch list was killed.

SPO4 Senen Faylon, 68, died after four unidentified men wearing bonnets and black jackets on board two motorcycles shot him on Martinez Street in Barangay Addition Hills at 3:15 p.m. on Sunday.

He was taken to the Mandaluyong Medical Center where he died around 4:30 p.m.

Senior Insp. Danilo Esguerra, the city police’s investigation unit head, said that Faylon was arrested and dismissed from the police service in 1995 for drug pushing.