2 KILLED, 1 NABBED IN BULACAN DRUG BUSTS
TWO alleged drug pushers were killed and another was arrested in separate operations conducted in the towns of Baliwag and Santa Maria in Bulacan on Tuesday. Senior Supt. Romeo Caramat Jr., acting Bulacan police provincial director, identified the slain suspects as a one alias “Big Boy” of Sitio Tumana in Barangay San Jose, Baliwag and Alvin dela Torre, included in the barangay ( village) drug list of Santa Maria. The arrested suspect was Amelia de Guzman, live- in partner of Big Boy. The suspects were killed in an armed encounter in separate buy- busts after the targets allegedly resisted arrest and shot a poseur buyer.
ECIJA VILLAGE CHIEF SLAIN OVER DRUG LIST
THE police on Tuesday attributed the Monday killing of a Nueva Ecija barangay (village) chairman to the local drug syndicate. Reports said Danilo Paca Sr., village chief of Pandalla in Muñoz Science City, was tailed by two suspects riding a motorcycle before he was shot several times at close range. Paca was on board a tricycle with village treasurer Jocelyn Esmina during the attack. Esmina survived. Supt. Dennis Wenceslao, Muñoz City police chief, said Paca had reported activities of suspected drug dealers in the city, resulting in the arrests of some pushers and users. Meanwhile, in Cuyapo town, Supt. Felix Castro, police chief, also reported that a 10-year- old boy died from an alleged vigilante attack whose target was his father-Dominador Fontanilla of Purok Maligaya in Barangay District. John Mark, Grade 4 student at Cuyapo Elementary School, instantly died when the attackers fired at his father, a suspected drug pusher in the area. Castro said the older Fontanilla was on the drug watch list and a known gun-for-hire involved with the Renato Quinto robbery- holdup syndicate operating in Nueva Ecija, Isabela and Pangasinan.
MALOLOS LAUNCHES SPORTSFEST, SCHOLARSHIP FOR DRUG SURRENDERERS
SOME 2,300 drug users and pushers who surrendered to the police were participants in the Tokhang Unity Games, tournament among barangay ( villages), held at the Malolos City Convention and Sports Complex on Monday. Mayor Christian Natividad said the Unity Games was part of detoxification process and reformatory efforts of the city government. “This is our way of giving them a new lease on life so that they will not feel as outcasts of society. Each team represents the 51 barangays in our city,” Natividad explained. Natividad said this is also a means to erase the fear of those who have surrendered to the government. A Memorandum of Agreement was signed between Malolos City, Bulacan State University, Tesda and the Philippine National Police for “Scholarship Balik Eskwela Program” and livelihood training for the surrenderers.
LAGUNA VILLAGE OFFICIAL SURRENDERS
A VILLAGE official tagged as a High Value Target ( HVT) by the authorities in Laguna surrendered on Monday to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Cabuyao town. Supt. Elizabeth Jasmin, CIDG spokesperson, identified the village official as Paolo Carpio Villanueva of Barangay Sinagtala of Mabitac town, and president of the Association of Barangay Chairmen (ABC) in the same town. Villanueva was accompanied by Mabitac Mayor Ronald Sana in his surrender to the CIDG office after he was linked in the illegal drug trade and listed as HVT by the police.