Shootout (RADYO INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ JONG MANLAPAZ)
MANILA — Three more drug pushing suspects were shot dead in separate police operations over the weekend, bringing the city’s casualty count in the war on drugs to 103.
In a drug bust operation at around 2:45 a.m. on Sunday, suspect Rommel Esguerra and his still unidentified accomplice were gunned down along the UP Arboretum in Barangay UP Campus after they pulled their guns when they sensed they were transacting with a police officer.
The case investigator, SPO3 Allan Rodulfo, said in his report filed at the Quezon City Police District that members of the Anonas station’s anti-illegal drug operations fired at Esguerra and his companion since “their lives were in imminent danger” and had “no other recourse but to shoot” the suspects.
The two were brought to the East Avenue Medical Center for treatment, but they were declared dead on arrival. Authorities recovered from Esguerra’s pockets three sachets believed to contain methamphetamine hydrochloride, or “shabu.” His companion, at least 25 years old, also yielded a sachet containing suspected shabu. Esguerra was on the Anonas station’s drug watch list.
Police also recovered from the crime scene a .45-pistol with six bullets, a .38-revolver with four bullets and a motorcycle with license plate ZN 6403.
Meanwhile, in Novaliches, a concerned citizen reported to the police on Saturday, an ongoing drug transaction along Masaya Street in Barangay Gulod at around 6:15 p.m.
The case investigator, PO3 Virgilio Mendoza, said that when the police arrived in the area, several men scampered in different directions, prompting the cops to chase them.
Police were able to arrest Erwin Miralles, but his companion Severimo Navasquez ran to his house and refused to heed the lawmen’s order for him to surrender.
Mendoza said that Navasquez then fired at the authorities, who retaliated and killed him in the process.
Recovered from the suspects were five sachets believed to contain shabu. Authorities recovered from Navasquez a .38-pistol and several drug paraphernalia.
Since July 1, the QCPD has killed 103 drug suspects in its police operations. During the same period, 8,319 individuals surrendered to authorities, 595 of whom were drug peddlers, while another 1,586 were arrested. SFM