Two drug suspects were killed in a shootout with policemen at Barangay Payatas, Quezon City, after an entrapment operation on Sunday went awry.
PO1 Leo Andres of the Batasan police station was shot twice but emerged unhurt because of his bulletproof vest.
According to the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director, Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, Sunday’s operation was the first to result in a casualty since Dec. 5 last year when President Duterte brought back the Philippine National Police into the war on drugs.
Eleazar clarified that the operation was part of the “Upper Barrel” of the PNP’s Project Double Barrel which was different from the controversial “Oplan Tokhang,” which under new PNP guidelines could be conducted only on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The drug suspects known only as Abis and Jom-Jom, both believed to be around 30 to 35 years old, were small-time pushers that the QCPD had been monitoring for several days, Eleazar told the Inquirer.
Police were also looking into their possible involvement in other crimes as a tattoo on Jom-Jom’s back suggested he was a gang member.
The drug bust happened at 3:10 a.m. on Sunday, when PO1 James Gumidam of the Batasan police station bought P1,000 worth of “shabu” (crystal meth) from the suspects.
According to Eleazar, the suspects noticed Gumidam’s signal to police operatives and started firing at the backup team. They hit Andres twice in the chest but he was saved by his bulletproof vest.
The suspects got on their motorcycle, leading to a chase which ended at 3:30 a.m. on Payatas Road when they were cornered. Instead of stopping, the suspects began shooting at the police, leading to a fire fight which left them dead.
Found in their possession were P90,000 worth of shabu, a sachet of dried marijuana leaves, a .38-caliber revolver, a 9-mm pistol, two cell phones, their motorcycle and the buy-bust money.