SIX suspected drug pushers were killed in a shootout with the police in anti-criminality operations of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 spread over seven hours in Cebu yesterday .
The simultaneous implementation of 22 search warrants, 30 warrants of arrest and 18 drug busts led to the arrests of 74 persons in the one-time big-time operations that started at 4 a.m. and ended at 11 a.m.
More than P13 million worth of shabu and marijuana were seized.
Chief Supt. Debold Sinas, the PRO 7 director, denied that his operatives employed excessive force in the deaths of six alleged drug personalities, saying the suspects were armed and engaged them.
Rene Fernandez, Rogel Abasa Econas and Zebor Cancianco were the fatalities in Talisay City; Karlo Niño Macachor and Ranchie Rosal Castañeda; and Joseph Taoy in Carmen.
“We are very sad. It’s very unfortunate that six persons were killed,” Sinas said.
Cebu City Police Office Director Royina Garma said they caught 32 drug suspects, including the son of former Consolacion mayor Avelino Gungob Sr.
Avelino “Junie” Gungob Sr., the incumbent barangay councilor of Casili, Consolacion, said the illegal drugs were planted. The operatives, he said, mauled him and the other suspects: Clint Francis Mandin Fernandez, Garry Pepito, and Noel Goser. (KAL)