DEATHS ON TRES DE ABRIL

Among those killed was a 16-year-old girl

It was broad daylight and nearing noon when residents around Victor Village, Tres de Abril Street of Barangay Punta Princesa, Cebu City reported to authorities at the Punta Princesa Police Station (Police Station 10) of gunshots being fired in the house of a Ramonito Ibona.

Approximately 20 minutes later, responding policemen found Ibona, his younger brother Cesario and a 16 year-old female all bathe in their own blood, with signs of another drug kill, perpetrated by assailants still unknown.

PO3 Jerry Genelaso, the homicide investigator from the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said that aside from two empty shells of .45 caliber, they also found eight small sachets of shabu from the crime scene.

The bodies of the older Ibona and the minor, who was referred by her relatives as “Miah,” were found sitting on a wooden bench while Cesario, 45, was lying face-up on the floor.

Ramonito, 55, a barbecue vendor, was shot in his upper torso, neck and arms while Cesario and Miah were shot right around their shoulder blades.

Genelaso said that although they recovered drugs and several drug paraphernalia from Ramonito’s house, they could not conclude that it was a drug-related case.

However, PO3 Winston Ybañez, another member of the CCPO’s homicide section who responded to the scene, said they were still confirming a report that Ramonito was an alleged runner for the late drug lord, Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz.

He also said witnesses told police that there were two gunmen, one of whom was identified as a certain “Amboy” from the same neighborhood whose motive for the killing remained unclear.

If the killings proved to be drug related, it would bring to 100 the total number of persons in Central Visayas gunned down by unknown killers.

A report released last week by the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) showed that from July 1 to August 31 alone, 89 suspected drug pushers were killed in police operations in Central Visayas while 97 others were gunned down by still unidentified assailants.

Where are the checkpoints?

Victor Village is situated at the heart of Barangay Punta Princesa, several kilometers away from the major exit and entrance points of Cebu City, where checkpoints manned by personnel of the CCPO and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have been set up following President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of state of national emergency due to lawless violence.

CCPO director Senior Supt. Joel Doria clarified that the site of the shooting incident was not within the areas covered by the checkpoints.

“Anyway, we gathered all possibilities on identifying the suspects. We will check the area. We will do anything we can. Unfortunately the culprits escaped. Rest assured, in due time, we will capture them because we already have leads, especially on possible suspects involved in illegal drugs. Our station commander is monitoring this,” he told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview.

Doria added that their checkpoints are concentrated in strategic locations in order to prevent terrorists from entering the territorial jurisdiction of Cebu City.

“But those in the barangays, especially the streets within them, those are not entrance and exit points of the city. We have our police officers patrolling them day and night but it’s not as intensified as the one conducted by our counterparts in AFP. For us (CCPO), we have certain security checks and measures being implemented, which we need to regularly monitor; otherwise, we might miss terrorists passing through them (checkpoints), and that’s a big mistake,” he clarified.

If ever there is a need to intensify the police’s local patrolling activities and monitor more areas within the city, Doria said their office “needs more than the strength they have now” to make it possible.

“Our area is very big. But we are doing everything we can. We placed our officers in strategic areas so that they can respond and capture any criminals,” Doria added.
Doria encouraged anyone who has any vital information on criminal activities to share them with police authorities.

Punta Princesa policemen, on the other hand, were still verifying if the Ibona brothers were in their list of surrenderers.

“Our officers assigned on the Oplan Tokhang operations were not present when we received the alarm. We still don’t know if they were really drug pushers, but we will coordinate with barangay officials on this matter as soon as possible,” SPO3 Sean Colombio of Police Station 10 said in Cebuano.

The witness

Initial reports from Police Station 10 and CCPO stated that a Christian Acampado, said to be Miah’s boyfriend, and another minor were inside the Ibona residence shortly before the suspects started to ask for the whereabouts of Ramonito.

“I was there because I brought our laundry to my grandmother who was Ramonito’s neighbor. We were just sitting in (Ibona’s) living room, Miah smoking a cigarette right beside him,” Acampado, 18, who was brought to Camp Sotero Cabahug in Gorordo Avenue for questioning, told reporters yesterday in Cebuano.

Miah’s mother, who was also in the city police headquarters, confirmed that Acampado was her daughter’s boyfriend and that he is the brother of Ramonito’s live-in partner.
Acampado narrated: “There were five of us inside the house, including the three victims. We were all sitting at the living room when one of the suspects asked the whereabouts of Ramonito.”

He said he tried to lock the gate before the two suspects could barge in, but one of them, whom he described as “tall, fat and has a really big stomach” prevented him from closing the door.

“When I saw the other one taking out a gun from his pocket, I ran back inside, told everyone about what I saw and hid in one of the rooms. We heard them forcefully open the door, and fired three gunshots. When we heard the shots, me and my friend ran towards the back exit of the house and told my grandmother to cross the road for safety,” said Acampado.

Acampado admitted to reporters he was an Operation Tokhang surrenderer but insisted he was just an occasional shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) user.

“I surrendered and vowed to stop snorting drugs. I was not even a regular user, and I use only small portions of it,” he added.

When he learned about drugs recovered from the crime scene, he said they were not using drugs at that time. Acampado hinted the suspects planted them to make it look like they were still into illegal drugs.

“They were not using drugs. Miah was not a user. She never used drugs,” Acampado said.

Acampado said he believed the suspects’ target was only Ramonito, and that they decided to kill the other two to avoid witnesses.

Miah’s mother likewise insisted her daughter did not use any form of illegal drugs.

“As far as I know, Miah only helps him (Ramonito) in selling barbeque every night in the street. She often visits his house because she told me she will be helping him in grilling the meat. No, I don’t know if she used illegal drugs but she never did,” said the mother in Cebuano.

However, Miah’s sister, identified as “Claire,” all but admitted that her sister was a drug user.

She said she was standing right in front of the gate where the shootout happened.

Recalling the incident, she said: “Why do they have to shoot a user, when their target is only the pusher! Grabe sad na sila oy! There’s no problem at all if they kill all drugs lords and pushers in Barangay Labangon. They know it’s a minor, why do they have to shoot her, too? They have no shame!”