With own ‘matrix,’ EPD blames drug slays on old gang

DRUG FLOW The Eastern Police District produced this “matrix” purportedly showing that a drug syndicate once active in Pasig City—and whose leader was arrested in 2006 and sent to prison three years later—could be behind the recent killings targeting small-time peddlers. The EPD made the presentation on Tuesday to dispel suspicions that the attacks, whose numbers have surged since the Duterte administration took over, were carried out by the law enforcers themselves. RICHARD REYES

TO “ERASE misconceptions” that lawmen are behind the rising number of extrajudicial killings targeting small-time drug suspects, the Eastern Police District (EPD) came up with an organizational chart purportedly of a drug syndicate whose founder is already in prison but now purging its own ranks.

Apparently taking a page from President Duterte’s book, the EPD Director Chief Supt. Romulo Sapitula, presented a so-called matrix of the Boratong group, or at least its “remnants,” saying its hitmen were behind at least 23 killings particularly in Pasig City.

In a media conference on Tuesday, Sapitula said Ama Boratong and his associates remain active despite the imprisonment of the group’s original leader, Ama’s brother Amin, who was arrested in 2006 and convicted in 2009.

Amin was then tagged as the operator of the notorious “shabu tiangge’’ in Barangay Sto. Tomas, Pasig, where pushers went undisturbed for years and openly sold drugs as though in a flea market.

“The matrix is very important to guide the police in their drug operation, and erase misconceptions that the policemen are behind the killings,” Sapitula told reporters.

Last week, President Duterte also released a supposed matrix linking Sen. Leila de Lima and other ranking government officials to the drug trade. A furious De Lima later called it a “joke” that the President would soon regret.

According to Sapitula, Ama Boratong and most of his gang members have pending warrants of arrest and could be behind 70 to 80 percent of the drug-related killings in Pasig.

Chief Insp. Charlie Abot, chief of the EPD investigation unit, said some of the dealers and associates under the group have their own hitmen who could be the motorcycle-riding assailants behind the recent attacks.

Abot noted that almost all the slain drug suspects were jobless. “Perhaps, since there is a limited supply now, the Boratong group is angry either because their customers are no longer getting any supply or there is no money coming in since the dealers themselves are using the shabu.’’

SAPITULA: No vigilantes in Pasig RICHARD A. REYES

Abot said the matrix was put together based on interviews with witnesses and drug suspects who earlier surrendered under the “Oplan Tokhang” campaign.

It identified some of the gunmen as Datumanong Boratong, Ama’s son; his cousin Acsaimen Amir “Macmac” Boratong, and Boy Makapegis.

It also contained the names of alleged street-level pushers: Joy Ong, Raul Alfonso, Christian Evangelista, Jeffrey Dizon and Luisito Salazar.

Ong (at large) and Alfonso (out on bail) were described as drug pushers operating in Barangay Rosario. Evangelista, Dizon and Salazar have been arrested for drug pushing in Barangay Manggahan.

The EPD suspected the Boratong group to be behind the killing of Rogelio Corpuz, 40, (shot dead on July 25); Fernando Alfonso, 51 (Aug 3); Jeffrey Oczon, 30 (Aug 4); and Chester Santos, 19 (Aug. 12).

From July 1 to Aug. 30, 23 drug suspects have been killed by unidentified gunmen in Pasig, said Senior Supt. Orlando Yebra Jr., the city police chief. Five more suspects were shot dead by the police conducting antidrug operations, he added.

Sapitula said the EPD would soon release a matrix for Marikina and San Juan cities. TVJ