Slain QC exec no ‘pusher’ but tipster vs drugs, peer says

A barangay official known to have provided information about drug users in his area was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Quezon City early Friday morning.

Village deputy administrator Rodante Sanchez, 51, was killed in an attack staged by four men on Santo Domingo Street, Barangay Holy Spirit, where he usually went for an early-morning jog.

According to a report submitted to Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, Quezon City Police District director, a witness was awakened by gunshots outside her house around 5:30 a.m.

Alarmed residents later saw a lifeless Sanchez slumped on the pavement.

A piece of paper placed next to the victim’s body had a handwritten message in Filipino that read: “I am a drug pusher. Don’t be like me or you will end up dead, too. My fellow pushers, leave this place if you still value your lives!”

But according to Barangay chair Felicito Valmocina, Sanchez was not involved in illegal drugs and that fellow local officials can vouch for his being “clean.”

“Perhaps his only involvement is when he relayed information to me about suspected drug users, when he was the head of our barangay public safety office three years ago,” said Valmocina, who had worked with the victim for more than two decades.

Valmocina surmised that the killers may have left the “pusher” sign to mislead the investigation.

Aside from being deputy administrator, Sanchez also headed the barangay’s urban settlers affairs department and usually served as mediator between private lot owners and informal settlers, the village chair added.

Calling Sanchez his “strong asset,” Valmocina said his work in the department resulted in more than 30 private lots being cleared of squatters.

He also recalled that Sanchez tested negative when random drug tests were conducted in their barangay.

The police have obtained footage from a closed-circuit television camera that captured the attack.