An active anti-drug crusader in the town of Balamban, midwest of Cebu, was shot dead by two unidentified armed men on Wednesday inside his home.
Sixty-year-old Cornelio Pepito, a former barangay captain of Luca, was sitting on a chair with his back facing the window of his house when men riding in tandem on board a motorcycle suddenly riddled him with bullets. Prior to his killing, Pepito was serving as a barangay councilor of the mountain village.
PO1 Andie Mabanta of the Balamban police station said that Pepito was shot multiple times in different parts of his body.
The concrete wall of their house was riddled with bullets while the window’s jalousie blades were shattered.
According to police, at around 6 in the evening, Pepito had just finished dinner with his partner, Milaluna Dayanan, 50, and was relaxing in the living room. While Dayanan went inside their room, she suddenly heard bursts of gunfire.
As she rushed to check, she saw Pepito already sprawled on the floor, soaked in his own blood.
Police recovered 10 empty shells of a 9 mm pistol and two deformed slugs of a .45 caliber pistol at the crime scene,Luca barangay captain Benveniedo Mauni said Pepito had been getting death threats since October when the village intensified its tokhang (Toktok Hangyo) operations – the Duterte administration’s door-to-door anti-drug campaign.
Last year, two “high value” drug suspects were arrested in the village while other drug users were told to surrender.
The arrest of the two drug targets, according to Mauni, resulted to a drop in illegal drug activities in the barangay.
Police officials are investigating the incident believed to be related to Pepito’s anti-drug campaign.