CEBU has become the Philippines’ top hotspot for drug-related killings, with 65 deaths reported between January and October 15 of the second year of Marcos Jr.’s administration, according to research.
Cebu has surpassed Davao del Sur, which held the top position for the past two years.
The data comes from the monitoring of the Dahas Project initiated by the Third World Studies Center of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy of the University of the Philippines Diliman.
The study, entitled “Drug-Related Killings in the Marcos Administration Year 2,” was conducted from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024. It was written by university researcher Joel Ariate Jr. and was published by Vera Files, a non-profit online news organization, on Nov. 3, 2024.
From Jan. 1 to Oct. 15, the Dahas Project recorded 312 drug-related killings from 41 provinces in the country, with Cebu accounting for 21 percent of the reported killings.
Cebu’s figure is double that of the next two areas, the National Capital Region, which recorded 33, and Negros Occidental, with 29. It is more than triple the numbers reported by provinces in the third tier, such as Leyte and Davao del Sur, which each have 18, and South Cotabato with 20.
SunStar Cebu contacted Police Regional Office 7 spokesperson Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelare, but he refused to comment, saying they have yet to have a complete picture of the data.
Killings
According to the study, of the 65 killings reported in Cebu, 56 victims were male and nine were female. The victims’ ages ranged from 20 to 49 years old.
The youngest recorded was a 17-year-old e-bike rider who died after being shot by motorcycle-riding gunmen at around 3:37 a.m. on May 1, in Urgello Street, Barangay Sambag 1, Cebu City, while the oldest was a 67-year-old ex-convict who was shot dead on Aug. 2 while sleeping at his house in Barangay Mambaling.
Of the reported killings in the province, Cebu City topped the list with 38, followed by Talisay City with four and Toledo City with three.
The towns of Argao, Balamban, Consolacion, Lapu-Lapu City, and Mandaue City reported two each, while the towns of Aloguinsan, Carcar City, Compostela, Cordova, Dalaguete, Liloan, Medellin, Minglanilla, Moalboal, and Ronda reported one each.
Of the 38 reported killings in Cebu City, 10 occurred in Mambaling, followed by Duljo Fatima with four. Guadalupe recorded three killings, while Suba, Tejero, and Tisa each had two. One killing was reported in each of the following barangays: Basak San Nicolas, Buhisan, Bulacao, Calamba, Cogon Pardo, Day-as, Ermita, Kalunasan, Pahina San Nicolas, Pasil, Poblacion Pardo, Punta Princesa, Sambag 1, Sambag 2, and San Roque.
Of the 65 people killed in Cebu, Ariate’s study found that only two were considered high-profile targets. Four victims had no known drug ties—three were alleged police informants, and one was a case of mistaken identity.
Ariate said that most of the killings—37 out of the total reported cases—were carried out by unidentified assailants.
Cebu stands out as the province with the highest prevalence of gun-for-hire or hitman activity, according to the report.
Of the 65 killings, only four were the result of legitimate police operations. The rest were carried out by alleged vigilantes or identified private individuals.
Of the four killings attributed to state agents, three involved high-value individuals, while one victim had a prior drug record.
Of the 36 unidentified deaths, the victims included individuals with prior drug records, users, pushers, and some with no known drug ties.
Four killings remain unknown, with three victims having prior drug records and one identified as a pusher.
Meanwhile, 21 killings attributed to non-state agents involved victims with prior drug records, users, pushers, and individuals with no known drug ties.
Among the 65 killed, three were identified as high-value individuals, 29 had prior drug-related records, eight were drug users, 20 were pushers, and five had no known drug ties.
“In Cebu, hitmen as young as 14 years old accept contracts to kill for P25,000, like alias ‘Mata,’ who was recently arrested in a drug buy-bust,” Ariate said in his report.
Victims
Small-time players remain the main victims of the drug war, the report said.
In the second year of Marcos Jr.’s campaign, the largest group among those killed were individuals with past drug-related offenses, including former surrenderers and ex-convicts previously charged under Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
This group accounted for 142 deaths, or 39.4 percent of the total fatalities.
In Barangay Basak San Nicolas, Cebu City, a woman named Jan Niña Delos Santos Lacumba was seated on a bench outside her house when a gunman approached and shot her in the head.
According to the police, Lacumba may have been mistaken for a police asset.
Meanwhile, there are state agents who were killed in the second year of Marcos’ drug war.
In Cebu, Staff Sergeant Ryan Languido Baculi of the Regional Police Drug Enforcement Unit 7 was killed during a drug buy-bust operation in Sitio Pagtambabayong, Barangay Kinasang-an, Cebu City, where he was acting as a poseur-buyer.
He was killed by Atong Rafols, who has a previous murder and frustrated murder cases. “The police said that he is a gun for hire for drug dealers who fail to remit payments,” the report said.
Drug-related deaths
Of all the drug-related killings in Cebu, 39, or 60 percent, occurred in the provincial capital, Cebu City.
These deaths were spread across various barangays, but one stands out: Barangay Mambaling, located in the southern part of the city, with a population of 30,459 according to the 2020 census, the report said.
Mambaling alone saw 10 killings in a single year, surpassing the total number of deaths in the rest of Central Visayas, excluding Cebu province, it further said.
Two of the cases in Mambaling allegedly involved hitmen: Emmanuel Ylaya Dinoy, a suspected gun for hire, was shot by police after allegedly resisting arrest, while Edmundo Dayao was killed by hitmen who mistakenly believed he was a police informant.
“Dahas,” which means violence in Filipino, is the name of a project run by the Third World Studies Center (TWSC) at the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of the Philippines Diliman.
The project collects its data from online news reports by various media outlets and, occasionally, from social media posts by police and other state actors, who often highlight their achievements in “neutralizing” known figures in the illegal drug trade within their areas.
According to the Dahas Project, a killing is considered drug-related if it happens during a drug operation, if the victim is connected to the drug trade in any capacity—such as a dealer, law enforcer, or informant—if illegal drugs are found with the victim, or if the perpetrator is involved in the drug trade.