SOME big-time pushers reportedly hired hit squads to kill police officers in Talisay City and other parts of Cebu.
Each kill is worth P20,000, according to the information received by Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) Director Manuel Abrugena.
Abrugena said he told Talisay City Police Chief Marlu Conag to validate the report on drug groups that are pooling money to pay assassins as a way of stopping their anti-narcotics operations.
Last Nov. 23, PO1 Jaylord Joseph Tabing was shot by drug suspects while he was conducting a surveillance in Barangay Tabunok.
“I always reminded my personnel that they should be careful in every operation they will be making,” Abrugena told reporters.
For his part, Conag said there is a drug group leader in Talisay City who is in hiding. He identified the person as Ariel Oliver, an alleged cohort of a woman who yielded P10 million worth of illegal drugs during her arrest last month.
Oliver reportedly hired hitmen from Barangay Duljo Fatima, Cebu City to kill operatives of the Talisay City Police Station and the Regional Mobile Force Battalion 7 based in Barangay Tanke, said Conag.
Police Regional Office 7 Director Debold Sinas earlier said that the groups based in Talisay City may have been affected by their operations in the past months.
Last Aug. 21, President Rodrigo Duterte mentioned Talisay City after he urged members of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines Visayas Island Cluster to fully enforce the law and raise the bar in governance, especially in the fight against illegal drugs.
A week later, Sinas relieved the 65 police officers of the Talisay City Police Station due to allegations that some of them were involved in illegal drugs.
One of the relieved cops tested positive of drug use twice, while eight others admitted to Sinas that they stole packs of shabu seized during drug busts.
Meanwhile, Abrugena denied there are Talisay City officials who have drug links. He received reports about elected officials, not specifically from Talisay, who are protecting drug personalities.
But could it be just the police’s way of masking their involvement in the death of drug personalities? Critics are asking since some families who lost loved ones through hitmen claim that police were behind the killings. Most of the people who were killed were also linked to drugs.
In the last couple of days, three men who reportedly have drug links, were killed in separate incidents in Metro Cebu from Tuesday night, Nov. 27, until Wednesday morning, Nov. 28.
Two of the fatalities were shot dead by unidentified assassins in Mandaue City, while the other was killed in a drug bust in Talisay City.
At 10 p.m. of Nov. 28, Carlos “Bading” Reyes, 41, was shot inside a cockpit arena in Barangay Ibabao-Estancia, Mandaue City.
Centro Police Station Chief Aldrin Villacampa said Reyes, a suspected pusher, surrendered during Oplan Tokhang in 2016.
Six hours later, in another part of the city, Kent william Isok, 25, was shot dead by riding-in-tandem assailants after eating noodles in a roadside stall in Barangay Tabok.
Nursing student Sheena Marie Consegra, 20, was hit by a stray bullet. She was rushed to the hospital for treatment.
Basak Police Station Chief Rodgene Fudotan said Isok had been included in the drug watchlist as street level pusher early this year.
In Barangay San Roque, Talisay City, suspected pusher Eugene “Amaw” Cabando was killed in an alleged shootout with the police at 12:45 a.m. Wednesday. (from AYB, with reports from FMD and GPL of SuperBalita Cebu)