10 dead in drug-related shootings

A buy-bust in Barangay Bagong Pag-asa, Quezon City, leads to an alleged shootout, leaving four suspects dead. —RAFFY LERMA

Six incidents of drug-related shootings from Monday night to Tuesday morning in Metro Manila left 10 people dead, one of them the victim of collateral damage.

Four of the drug suspects were killed in Quezon City after they reportedly shot it out with undercover policemen while four others were arrested.

Killed were Ricardo Mamaril, a notorious drug pusher in Barangay Bagong Pagasa; and his companions Mark Charlie Ang, Jeff Kenneth Firmarino and Rey Dulin.

Recovered from them were four firearms and 15 sachets of “shabu” or methamphetamine hydrochloride.

A police report said that  Quezon City Police District Station 2 operatives conducted a buy-bust operation on Hona Street, San Roque II, at 11:45 p.m. Monday with Mamaril as the target.

After the undercover policemen identified themselves, Mamaril ran inside his house. They followed him, triggering a shootout between them and the suspect and his companions.

On the other hand, Jessa Mae Cabigaw, Krista Melody Erediano, Mario Gumiran and a minor were arrested during the same operation after they sold P500 worth of shabu to the police team.

Around four hours earlier, an alleged drug user’s mother and friend were killed when armed men burst into their house in Quezon City.

Laarnie Luna was shot as she was lying in bed inside her house on Morning Star Hills in Barangay Payatas. Also killed   was the friend of her son, Wilson Cadavid, who was living with them.

Luna’s 17-year-old son, believed to be the target of the attack along with Cadavid because of their alleged involvement in drugs, survived although he was also wounded in the attack at 8 p.m. on Monday.

At the time of the shooting, he was outside the house and the gunmen chanced upon him on their way out, the police said.

Based on the records of the Batasan Police Station, Cadavid and Luna’s son were drug users.

In Parañaque and Las Piñas cities, four drug suspects—two of them jeepney barkers—were all gunned down by motorcycle-riding gunmen.

Allan Manitid, a 43-year-old jeepney barker, was seated in front of a store on Lopez Creek Side Avenue in Barangay San Isidro, Parañaque City, at 12:50 a.m. Tuesday, when a man on a motorcycle shot him dead. Found in the victim’s pocket was a sachet of drugs.

Nearly nine hours later, another barker identified as Raymundo Ferrer, 34, was gunned down on Ninoy Aquino Avenue.  According to a report submitted to Parañaque police chief Senior Supt. Jose Carumba, a motorcycle rider went up to Ferrer and shot him thrice in the back.

The police said they were still verifying if Ferrer was involved in illegal drug activities after they found several sachets of suspected shabu in his bag.

Meanwhile, a man accused of being a drug pusher in Barangay Sun Valley, also in Parañaque City, was shot by one of two men on a motorcycle after he went out to buy food at 6 p.m. on Monday.

Marcel Bayaban, 35, died on the spot at the corner of Culdesac and Toyota Streets.

In Las Piñas, motorcycle-riding men also killed Michael Paler inside the Doña Manuela Subdivision, Barangay Pamplona Tres, at 8 p.m. on Monday.

The police found in his possession a sachet containing dried marijuana leaves.