WITHIN seven hours, police operations in Manila from Monday night to Tuesday morning added five more persons to the death toll of the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
But four of the fatalities, who were killed in Sampaloc, Algue, and Delpan areas, remained unidentified by the police at press time, although the official report on their deaths described them as drug users.
The fifth was Ernesto “Weng” Salting Jr. of Tondo, who was on the Manila Police District’s (MPD) drug watch list, according to members of the MPD’s Raxabago station.
Salting died in a buy-bust operation around 9:30 p.m. on Monday at his house on Trinidad street, said the station commander, Supt. Redentor Ulsano.
The operation was led by the Gulod precinct commander, Senior Insp. Elias Dematera Jr., said PO3 Dennis Turla of the MPD homicide section.
Also in Sampaloc, two still-unidentified men were killed around 2:20 a.m. after an MPD team caught them allegedly using “shabu” on Buenos Aires Street. Recovered from them were .38 and .357 revolvers, a P200 bill, and 10 sachets of shabu, and a spent bullet casing.
‘Unprovoked’
In his report to MPD homicide, SPO3 Edwin Jacob of Sampaloc station said members of the Gulod precinct were alerted to a group of drug users in the area earlier that morning. An eight-member team led SPO4 Ramon Relator responded, he said.
The two suspects fired at the approaching team “without any apparent reason… but missed,” according to Jacob, forcing PO2 Dexter Martin and PO1 Lawrence Gorgon to retaliate and kill the suspects on the spot.
Around 2:30 a.m., PO1 Reynan Ramores of the MPD’s Algue precinct shot dead one of the two men on a motorbike whom he and a fellow officer encountered on Abad Santos Avenue.
Like in the Sampaloc incident, Ramores shot back at the back rider because he fired at the officers without provocation, according to a report by SPO4 Glen Vallejo. The man driving the bike, however, managed to escape, while his slain companion yielded a .38 caliber revolver, a brown purse containing coins, and six sachets of shabu.
In Delpan, a “suspicious-looking” and allegedly pistol-wielding man was also killed by PO1 Ronel Vincent Angeles from Delpan precinct at 7:40 p.m. on Monday on Sparline Road, Parola compound.
In Quezon City, three men believed to be victims of summary execution were found dead in Barangay Sto. Domingo early Tuesday morning, their bodies stuffed in black garbage bags.
A report from the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit said barangay public safety officers Celso Llaneta and Eustacio Cinco were patrolling Tirad Pass around 5:30 a.m. when they saw the bags near the corner of Biak na Bato Street.
Investigators said the victims, who were still unidentified at press time, appeared to be 30 to 45 years old and had the names “Anna,” “Rica,” “Milo,” “May” and “Alex” tattooed on their bodies. The bodies had stab wounds in the chest, head injuries and gunshot wounds in the face and back. With a report from Maricar B. Brizuela/TVJ