Bells ring vs EJKs but bullets keep finding ‘druggies’

Seven people linked by the police to illegal drugs were killed in different areas in Metro Manila from Monday night to early Tuesday morning, mostly in attacks carried out by gunmen on motorbikes.

The latest deaths came even as the Church-led campaign denouncing extrajudicial killings (EJKs) targeting so-called drug personalities under the four-month-old Duterte administration took new forms. Earlier this week, a Catholic bishop in the Bicol region called for the nightly pealing of church bells as a sign of protest.

In Las Piñas City, a man who already surrendered under “Oplan Tokhang,” the government’s antidrug campaign, was shot by three assailants on motorbikes Monday night.

Rogelio Salamate Jr., 34, was ambushed around 9:30 p.m. on Kamatisile Street, Barangay Talon Uno, a few meters from his home in Golden Acres Subdivision, according to case investigators SPO1 Walter Tino and PO3 Christian Yanga.

Witnesses told the investigators that Salamate, who was on the local drug watch list, earlier surrendered under Oplan Tokhang.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Police District (EPD) recorded five more killings carried out by hitmen on motorbikes. The victims were as follows:

Christopher Gonzaga,45, who was shot on Camia Street, Minahan, in Barangay Malanday, Marikina City, around 8:55 p.m.

Arthur Andres, 50; killed on Lamuan, J.P. Rizal Street, also in Marikina, at 8:45 p.m.

Albert Sidayon, 44; killed near his house along P. Bernal street in Barangay Ugong, Pasig City, at 9:05 p.m. Also a Tokhang surrenderer, Sadayon was helping a brother fix a table when shot in the face and body.

John John Tria, 33; shot while asleep with his live-in partner Liza Cruz inside their house on Dr. Sixto Antonio Avenue in Barangay Rosario, Pasig, around 12:15 a.m. on Tuesday.

Wenceslao Sierra, Jr., 44; killed on Sen Neptali Gonzales Street in Baragay Bagong Silang, Mandaluyong.

Also in Marikina, the police said a buy-bust operation targeting Ogie Bausin, 28, led to his death around 4:05 a.m. on Tuesday at Block 13, Phase 1, Balubad Settlement in Barangay Nangka.

Senior Supt. Lorenzo Holanday Jr., the city police chief, said a poseur buyer met with Bausin around 2:15 a.m

The undercover agent was supposed to buy P300 worth of “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) from Bausin, but the suspect drew a .38-cal. revolver after sensing that the buyer had a backup team of policemen.

Bausin started firing and, after a short chase, was hit as the officers retaliated, Holanday said. Two policemen sustained minor injuries in the operation, which was coordinated with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the police chief added.

SPO2 Dionise Salcedo, the investigator, said the slain Bausin was found carrying five sachets of shabu in his coin purse.