Police investigators are considering the illegal drugs trade as a possible motive in the shooting to death of two men in the municipality of San Jose in Negros Oriental on Tuesday evening.
Police Insp. Luisito Pinili, the police chief of San Jose, disclosed Wednesday that initial information revealed that the two victims were allegedly into the illegal drugs trade.
An initial police report said that at around 10:20 p.m. Tuesday, the victims, identified as Ramie Cantero Calum, 44 years old, married, and Luisito Devera, 48 years old, married, and both residents of Zone 3 in Barangay Looc, Dumaguete City, were shot dead by two unidentified male persons riding in tandem on a motorcycle of undetermined make and model.
Calum incurred 15 gunshot wounds while Devera sustained 13 gunshot wounds, the police report said.
The victims were riding on board a Yamaha motorcycle travelling south along the national highway, believed to be returning to Dumaguete, when the suspects who were tailing them opened fire upon reaching Barangay Sto. Niño in San Jose town.
After the first volley of shots that caused the victims to fall off the motorcycle they were riding, the suspects alighted and finished them off by shooting at them close-range before fleeing southward, the police said.
Witnesses could not identify the suspects because the shooting took place at a dimly lit area.
Recovered from the crime scene were sixteen pieces of empty shells, four pieces of slugs and the motorcycle that the victims rode.
San Jose police chief Pinili disclosed that based on initial investigation, one of the victims, Luisito Devera, was arrested and detained briefly sometime in 2008 for alleged involvement in the illegal drugs trade but the case against him was dismissed.
Family members of the victims said the two did not have known enemies.
But the San Jose police chief disclosed that they have gathered information that point towards the illegal drugs trade as the highly likely motive for the killings.
Dumaguete City police chief Jonathan Pineda, meanwhile, said that the two victims were not in their watch list of suspected drug personalities.
Meanwhile, police have arrested three suspected drug personalities during a buy-bust operation in Tanjay City on Wednesday, January 3, 2018.
A police report identified the suspects as Vanessa Antiporta Garcia, 28, single, female and a resident of Barangay 2 in Bais City; SJ John Saga Gutierres, 22, single, and Edgar Tobiah Muñoz, 22, single, both residents of Barangay 3 in Tanjay City.
The three were arrested by Tanjay police, Bais City police, and the local Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) during a buy-bust operation which resulted in the confiscated of one transparent plastic sachet containing suspected shabu granules, three pieces of PHP one thousand bills used as marked money, cellular phones, and one unit SUV Ford Escape, colored white, with plate number IK 6530.
Charges for violation of Sec. 5 and Sec. 11 of Article 2 of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act were filed against the suspects. (Metro Post)
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