Zero casualty in NPD, EPD drug busts

No casualties were reported in police antidrug operations between Tuesday night until early Wednesday in the northern and eastern parts of Metro Manila.

Over 40 people were arrested, all of them alive, according to police reports.

However, in Makati City, located in the southern part of the metropolis, a man was wounded after he supposedly fired at a policeman serving arrest warrants.

Based on a summary of operations provided by the Northern Police District (NPD), 16 people were arrested in buy-bust operations in Malabon City, including a 17-year-old boy.

The teenager was taken into custody along with four others after he was found in possession of “shabu” in Barangay Tugatog at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Also arrested were Marlyn Mayor, 25; Angelica Mejia, 20; Edward Baluyan, 18; and Michael Rodriguez, 40.

Recovered from them were six packets containing what was suspected to be shabu, the police reports said.

In Caloocan City, 16 others were caught in drug busts conducted by the police. Among those arrested were a man and four women caught redhanded using illegal drugs in Barangay 63, at 11 p.m. Tuesday.

They were identified as Jayston Contreras, 30, a tricycle driver; Rebecca Acuña, 52; Glenda Legaspi, 44; Annie Gomez, 38; and Daisilyn Manalastas, 40, according to police reports.

The NPD, particularly the Caloocan police, have taken a lot of flak in recent days after three members of the city’s Police Community Precinct 7 were accused of killing 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos during an anticriminality campaign on Aug. 16.

The police claimed the teenager fired upon them, prompting them to shoot back. Witnesses and the footage taken by a closed-circuit television camera, however, showed that they dragged the unarmed boy away and shot him as he was kneeling facedown in the mud.

Autopsy results showed that Delos Santos suffered three gunshot wounds, one in the back which pierced his lung, and two in the head.

In the Eastern Police District (EPD) which has jurisdiction over the cities of Pasig, San Juan, Marikina and Mandaluyong, policemen arrested 11 drug suspects and seized 25 sachets of shabu from Tuesday to Wednesday morning. No suspects were killed during the operations.

EPD director Chief Supt Romulo Sapitula said there would be no letup in their war on drugs despite widespread public criticism following Delos Santos’ death.

“The criticism has somehow affected police officers. I cannot say what its effects are on all policemen, but for the EPD, it has not affected us that much,” Sapitula said, adding: “We will never stop until we arrest the last drug suspect.”

In Makati City, a man was wounded in an alleged shootout by a policeman conducting anticriminality operations on Wednesday morning.

The man identified only as Abon remains confined at Ospital ng Makati after he was shot by PO2 Jonathan Flores of the Makati Police Community Precinct 1 around 10 a.m.

A report said the policeman was serving arrest warrants in in Barangay Tejeros when he noticed Abon was carrying a gun. —With a report from Dexter Cabalza