QC cops kill drug surrenderer who stopped rehab

Guillermo Eleazar—NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

A man who had surrendered twice under the Oplan Tokhang antidrug campaign was shot dead by antinarcotics agents in Quezon City in a buy-bust operation on Thursday, according to the police.

Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, director of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD), said they began monitoring the movements of Marvin Panes in March after he stopped attending the sessions under the community-based rehabilitation program run by the local government.

It was also around that time that the QCPD discovered that Panes was leading a drug-peddling group who also engaged in vehicle theft particularly in the Fairview area, Eleazar said in an interview on Friday.

This prompted his men to come up with a case plan against Panes and his cohorts, he said, noting that two alleged members of his group were arrested in March and earlier this month.

He said Panes surrendered under the Tokhang campaign on July 20 last year.
“But during that time, we still did not have the Integrated Drug Abuse Profiling System, so he was not properly profiled and monitored for rehabilitation,” he told the Inquirer.

With the profiling system already in place, he “technically surrendered again” in March but did not did not attend the required drug rehabilitation sessions organized by the city government, the official said.

Described to be between 25 and 30 years old, Panes had also been linked to motorcycle theft and considered a high-value target by the police.

A report to Eleazar said the antidrug unit of the QCPD-Fairview station set a trap for Panes at Rolex Apartelle on Dahlia Avenue, Barangay Greater Fairview, around 2 p.m. on Thursday.

Panes allegedly tried to fire at the police and was killed with two shots to the head, the report said.

His live-in partner, 27-year-old Catherine Young, was taken under custody.

The police said the slain suspect yielded three sachets of suspected “shabu” with an estimated street value of P50,000, a .45-caliber pistol and drug paraphernalia.

His death brought to 290 the number of drug suspects killed in QCPD operations since the start of President Duterte’s war on narcotics in July.