AN ALLEGED party drug dealer was shot dead while driving his car on M.C. Briones St. in Mandaue City past 12 p.m. Wednesday, March 6.
On the same day, a former investigator of the Talisay City Police, who was one of the relieved police personnel in Central Visayas for alleged drug links, was shot dead by a sniper while relaxing in the terrace of the second floor of his house in Zone 4, Barangay Dumlog, Talisay City.
The fatality was identified as Police Technical Sergeant Mikey Espina.
In Mandaue City, the drive-by shooting victim Neil Benjamin Eugenio Yap, 34, succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds in the head and neck after he was attacked by motorcycle-riding assassins, whose faces were covered with full-face helmets.
Drug links
In the police officer’s case, Talisay City Police Chief Marlu Conag said he had heard about Espina’s alleged links to drug personalities, but he was not the latter’s immediate superior at the time.
Espina was transferred to Masbate in 2017.
The victim’s family, however, does not believe he was involved in illegal drugs.
As for Yap, Mandaue City Police Office Director Julian Entoma said the victim was included in the Police Regional Office 7’s matrix of party drug suppliers in Cebu Province.
Yap, he said, was the contact of the main supplier, who is based outside Central Visayas.
The victim, a resident of Barangay Quiot, Cebu City, was caught with Richard Ngo Go in a drug bust by operatives of the Regional Special Operations Group (Rsog) 7 in January last year.
Police seized several Ecstasy pills from the suspects.
Centro Police Station Chief Adrin Villacampa said they received the shooting alarm at 12:15 p.m.
Yap attended a hearing on his drug case pending before the Mandaue City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 83 in the morning before the incident happened.
Investigation showed Yap was driving his blue car (ABN-4011) on the northbound lane. The vehicle stopped at the red stoplight near the intersection of M.C. Briones St. and A.S. Fortuna St.
When the traffic light turned green, the assassins riding a black motorcycle shot the glass window on the driver’s seat side several times, killing Yap instantly.
The crime scene investigators recovered empty shells of a .45 pistol.
Villacampa said the focus of their investigation is the victim’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking.
He said Go had identified Yap as the supplier of party drugs, including Ecstasy pills.
Yap may have also had enemies in his other business ventures and in his private dealings, according to Villacampa.
The MCPO will determine when Yap was able to gain temporary liberty after his arrest last year.
Investigators will also check the closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras of the establishments near the crime scene and the Mandaue City Hall of Justice, where RTC Branch 83 is located.
Sniper
In the Talisay shooting, the CCTV cameras in Espina’s house may help the police in identifying the culprits, who reportedly used sniper rifles while they were on board two white vans.
Witnesses told the police the vans were parked about 15 meters from Espina’s house.
When he was still alive, Espina reportedly told his relatives he had received threats from the Kuratong Baleleng Gang after he arrested its members during drug busts in Barangay Tangke.
Espina’s brother Virgilio said the victim was on the terrace to pass the time, when he heard several gunshots.
After learning Espina that had been hit, relatives rushed him to South General Hospital in Naga City, where he was declared dead.
Espina succumbed to gunshot wounds in the face, hands and other parts of his body.
Virgilio defended his brother, saying the latter was not involved in any illegal activity.
He said the victim earned extra income by selling dressed chicken. (KAL)