Barging into Caloocan home, gunman kills ‘pusher’

A man was shot and killed by an intruder who barged into his house in Talipapa, Caloocan City, early Friday morning, weeks after he presented himself to the police under the Oplan Tokhang antidrug campaign.

Randy Navoa was shot in the head inside his bedroom around 2:45 a.m., said Chief Insp. Ilustre Mendoza, investigation section chief of the city police, quoting the victim’s relatives who witnessed the attack.

A Radyo Inquirer report said four men were seen approaching his house shortly before the shooting.

Witnesses said Novoa was seen talking with a group of strangers outside his home the previous night.

Navoa, a 36-year-old taxi driver residing at Road 11, GSIS Hills Subdivision, Barangay 164, was “a well-known drug pusher” in the area, a report from the Northern Police District said.

He surrendered to the police last month under Oplan Tokhang, according to the report quoting Eric Balanquit, executive officer of Barangay 164.

But Novoa didn’t stop in his illegal activities in the barangay, the report said.

Senior Supt. Johnson Almazan, the city’s chief of police, said Navoa’s brother Ronito had executed an affidavit to the police to stop the investigation on the killing.

Overcrowded jails in QC

The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) said it had jailed 23 persons over the past two days for being drug users or peddlers.

Senior Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, the QCPD director, said they were arrested in 11 different operations across the city. A total of 28 sachets believed to contain “shabu,” three sachets of marijuana, and various drug paraphernalia were recovered from the suspects.

The suspects were added to the 4,000 inmates in the overcrowded Quezon City Jail, whose horrific conditions recently drew international media attention as President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs crammed more detainees into the 60-year-old facility.

Last week, the Quezon City government and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) signed an agreement that would pave the way for the construction of a new city jail that could hold at least 6,000 inmates.

Under the Deed of Usufruct signed by Mayor Herbert Bautista and BJMP Deputy Director for Administration Chief Supt. Serafin Barreto Jr., the new jail will rise on a 2.4-hectare area in Barangay Payatas.

Barreto said the planned facility is expected to cost around P1.5 billion and will have an infirmary, a rehabilitation center, and a building for welfare and development programs. TVJ