PDEA asset shot dead

A woman who served as an informant or “asset” of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) was killed while her neighbor was wounded by an unidentified gunman in a residential area at Camp Sampaguita, a section of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) property in Muntinlupa City.

Chief Insp. June Reyes, head of the Muntinlupa police investigation unit, said 59-year-old Josephine Jacalo, alias “Maxifeel,” died on the spot after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds in the attack.

Around 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the assailant entered the apartment that she owned on Sampaguita Street and started shooting. Jacalo managed to run to her neighbor’s house for cover, but the gunman followed and eventually killed her.

The neighbor, Erlina Javiero, 56, was hit by a stray bullet in the chest. She remained in the hospital as of press time.

Jacalo’s daughter told the police that her mother had been constantly receiving death threats since she became a PDEA asset.

Reyes, who confirmed the victim’s ties to the antidrug agency, said the investigators had learned that a PDEA agent once rented a unit at Jacalo’s apartment.

Jacalo and the PDEA agent recently had a confrontation after she learned that the tenant had been renting out the same unit to someone else, he said.