Twelve more drug suspects ended up dead in five cities in Metro Manila within a 24-hour period, nine of them at the hands of unidentified armed men. Only two were killed in a legitimate police operation.
“This war on drugs is not making us feel safe. I’m so close to cursing the President,” said the mother of a 3-year-old student in Mandaluyong City whose school gate was hit by a stray bullet on Wednesday.
Moises Cabildo III, 35, a resident of Barangay Plainview, was standing beside the gates of St. Therese Private School at 12:20 p.m. on Wednesday when he was shot by two men on a motorcycle.
“What if the students were dismissed earlier? What if the incident happened a few minutes later? What if a stray bullet had hit bystanders?” the mother asked in a post on social media.
Senior Supt. Joaquin Alva, Mandaluyong City police chief, said that Cabildo died at Mandaluyong City Medical Center more than an hour later.
According to the police, the death of Cabildo, the 45th case of death under investigation (DUI) by the city police, could be drug-related.
At 1:40 p.m. on Wednesday, three men wearing helmets barged into the house of tricycle driver Ferdinand Fronda, 40, on Aglipay Street in Barangay Poblacion, and shot him as their cohorts stood guard outside.
Senior Insp. Joseph Logronio, chief of the Scene of the Crime Operatives, said that Fronda was shot twice in the head and died instantly.
At 4:40 p.m., Elbert Dadollia, a resident of Inocentes Street in Barangay Pagasa and a contractual employee of ABS-CBN Promotions, was shot dead by one of two unidentified men as he was outside his house.
Dadollia, who died on the spot, was included in the drug watch list of the city police’s anti-illegal drugs unit, Alva said.
Entrapment operation
In Quezon City, an entrapment operation conducted by Batasan policemen left Marlon Quinalayo, 44 and his tenant, a certain Pat, dead. Both men were allegedly known drug users in Barangay Holy Spirit.
Police reports said that at 7:05 p.m. on Wednesday, the pair shot it out with policemen after a drug transaction. They were taken to East Avenue Medical Center where they were declared dead on arrival.
Recovered from them were two guns and four sachets of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride).
In Las Piñas City, residents of Madre Compound in Barangay Manuyo Dos told the police that they heard gunfire and a motorcycle driving away before they found a dead man on Joshua Street at 12:30 a.m. on Thursday.
The victim who had been shot repeatedly was around 30 years old, 5’4” in height and dressed in a white shirt and jogging pants. His body was taken to a funeral home for autopsy.
Crime scene operatives recovered slugs from an unknown firearm and two sachets of suspected shabu in the victim’s pocket.
Around noon, Banak Cristobal was gunned down at the corner of Daang Kariton and Quirino Avenue in Barangay Elias Aldana by unidentified suspects.
Case investigator SPO2 Jennifer Gloria said that Cristobal was a drug user who had previously surrendered.
In Pateros, 48-year-old Peter Beroya was driving his tricycle on C. Almeda Street at 3:40 a.m. on Thursday when he was shot by one of two men on a motorcycle. Beroya was in the drug watch list of Barangay Sta. Ana.
Four casualties were recorded in Pasig City on Thursday morning. Aliton Dy, 45 and his son Nash Patrick Daniel, 18, both on the police drug watch list, were shot dead by two unidentified men inside their house on Labanos Street, Barangay Manggahan, at 12:09 a.m.
At almost the same time, Armando Villasor, who was on the drug watch list of Barangay Pinagbuhatan, was killed by armed men who entered his house on Baltazar Street. He yielded three sachets of suspected shabu.
At 3 a.m., Cesar Serquillo, a drug surrenderer, was gunned down on Capt. Javier Street. He was cleaning his taxi when four men on a motorcycle killed him. —WITH DEXTER CABALZA