TWO suspected drug personalities will no longer spend Christmas with their families after they were killed by police operatives in what was supposedly a drug bust that turned into a shootout in Claveria, Misamis Oriental, Thursday, December 13.
Killed were Curly Salcedo and Robert Pagtalunan, both residents of Barangay Bugo, Cagayan de Oro City.
Again, investigators said the two drug suspects were first to draw their firearms and opened fire upon sensing that they were dealing with the police, forcing the back-up operatives to retaliate.
The two suspects sustained gunshot wounds in different parts of their bodies and were rushed to the nearest hospital but did not reach there alive.
Authorities also claimed the two were armed with a 38 caliber revolver and 45 caliber pistol.
Also recovered at the crime scene were three sachets of suspected shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) and a motorcycle owned by the suspects.
Police has tagged Salcedo as number 7 in the provincial target list of the police and the anti-narcotics agency.
Superintendent Surki Serenas, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office-Northern Mindanao, said more than a hundred suspected drug personalities were killed since President Rodrigo Duterte declared the war on drugs.