A FATAL shooting last Thursday in Cebu City gave top police officials another opportunity to push a theory: there are no vigilantes, but drug pushers are killing one other.
Ronald Udto, 19, shot and killed Rogelio Petalcorin Gabasa, 30, in Sitio Lawis Riverside, Barangay Pasil last Thursday evening.
Both were known drug personalities in the area. Gabasa was shot four times.
Cebu City Police Office Director Joel Doria said that Udto admitted during a tactical interrogation that he killed Gabasa because the latter had told the police about illegal drug operations in their barangay.
“Ang ikinagagalit ng pusher ay kinanta siya nung isang pusher at gumaganti sila ngayon. Sila-sila ang nag-gagantihan (One pusher got angry because another pusher gave the police his name, and so he retaliated. They’re doing this to themselves),” Doria said.
170 so far
Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Chief Supt. Noli Taliño also cited the same shooting as proof that drug pushers are trying to liquidate one another.
From July 1 until Aug. 24, 97 suspected drug pushers were killed by unidentified men-mostly two men sharing a motorcycle-in Central Visayas. Police operations have led to the deaths of 73 suspected drug sellers in the same period.
Taliño said these cases are still under investigation.
The region’s top police official said it is possible that leaders of drug groups themselves are cleaning their ranks, afraid their underlings might report them to the police.
Udto was caught in a follow-up operation after the victim’s friends who witnessed the crime identified him as Gabasa’s killer.
Gabasa and his friends were drinking when the suspect arrived and started shooting at him. Gabasa had previously submitted himself to the police in response to Oplan Tokhang.
‘Proof’
“Wala naman tayong vigilante. Heto may proof tayo, itong nahuli ng Station 6, itong pumatay ng drug suspect inamin niya na kaya niya pinatay is because ito daw yung nagsusumbong sa mga pulis (We don’t have any vigilantes. We have proof that the one who was caught by Station 6, the one who killed the drug suspect admitted that he did so because the victim had been feeding information to the police),” Doria said.
It was the 28th shooting in the city for August, based on records of the Homicide Section. Most of them were drug-related.
In an interview with PO3 Edario Manatad of the Homicide section, Gabasa had also admitted he held a grudge against the suspect’s older brother Mario Udto, who served time in the Cebu City Jail on a drug-related charge.
Udto is currently detained.
In an interview yesterday, Director Taliño said the police have been having problems solving the killings because no witness has come forward to identify the culprits.
He added the police are not promoting vigilante-style killing because it is against the law.
At least 71,000 junkies and pushers have so far surrendered and promised to change their ways in Central Visayas.
Taliño urged the rest to surrender. With Julie Mae Altamira, USJ-R Journalism Intern