Signs of summary execution emerge as drug suspect found dead a day after he was abducted in Bacolod

BACOLOD CITY—A drug suspect abducted on Wednesday (Jan. 22) turned up dead at a subdivision in this city early on Thursday (Jan. 23), raising suspicions he was summarily executed.

The body of Richard Tutop, 32, was found at East Homes 6 Subdivision at the village of Mansilingan with multiple gunshot wounds in the head.

His hands were tied and his mouth was covered with packing tape, said Maj. Carmelo Nermal, chief of the Bacolod police station 7.

Bullet shells were found in the crime scene although the caliber of the gun used was still unknown.

According to an investigation report, Tutop was walking on Gatuslao Street at the village of 3, also in the city when he was abducted by unidentified gunmen and forced into a van around 2 p.m. on Wednesday.

Nermal said the killing of Tutop could be drug-related as two sachets of suspected shabu, or crystal meth, had been found on the slain suspect.

The abduction and killing of Tutop came more than a week after a village councilor, Romeo Canlas, who was on a drug watchlist of police and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, was also killed by gunmen in the city.

A similar pattern of killings was also noted last December in the city and the town of Murcia, Negros Occidental—bodies were found with their hands tied and their mouths gagged with packing tape.

Controversial police officer Lt. Col. Jovie Espenido had recently tagged Bacolod as a “shabulized city.”

Edited by TSB