More drug raids: 2 dead in Mati City, town in Leyte

Two antidrug operations in Mindanao and Visayas turned bloody, killing two suspects and leading to the arrests of several others.

In Mati City, Davao Oriental, police said Aljid Palma, tagged as a high-value drug target, was killed at a raid on a suspected drug den on Saturday.

Senior Supt. Harry Espela, Davao Oriental police chief, said Palma shot it out with police officers who came to his house in the village of Central in Mati to serve a search warrant.

Palma and his wife, Delma, were tagged as top drug suspects. Delma and eight other suspects were arrested.

After he was shot by police, Palma was brought to a hospital where he died of gunshot wounds, according to Espela.

Espela said police recovered two .45 cal. pistols, bullets and drugs at the Palma house.

In the town of Bato, Leyte province, a man tagged by police as the town’s No. 1 drug personality was killed in a gunfight when antinarcotics agents conducted a drug buy-bust operation also on Saturday.

Police said Crispin Adaron, 39, put up a fight during the buy-bust operation in the village of Daanglungsod in Bato past 11 a.m.

Two other suspects, allegedly associates of Adaron, were arrested during the operation conducted by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Eastern Visayas and the regional police office’s drug enforcement units.

The arrested suspects were identified as Edison Pide Tablo, 38, and Jeffrey Manuerca Alboro, 34.

Found in the possession of Adaron were four sachets of shabu, P500 in marked money and a .38 cal. revolver.

The Mati raid bore a similarity to the operation in Ozamiz City that led to the killings of Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog Jr., his wife, brother and thirteen others.

Police were enforcing a search warrant in Ozamiz when men in the employ of the mayor opened fire, according to police officers.

Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, Philippine National Police chief, said police were under instruction to keep themselves alive during antidrug operations even if this meant fatally shooting suspects. —FRINSTON LIM AND ROBERT DEJON