ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

A relative mourns the death of Steve Go (inset) at the Mandaue City morgue where Go’s body was brought after he was killed inside the Mandaue City Jail.

To his fellow inmates, Steve Go was a king and a bully.

But he found his match on Tuesday.

Go, a 40-year-old suspected drug lord who was locked behind bars pending trial for murder charges, was shot four times on the head by a fellow inmate who he reportedly made fun of inside the Mandaue City Jail past 11 a.m.

He was rushed to the hospital but didn’t make it alive.

Jail Supt. Jessie Calumpang, warden of Mandaue City Jail, said the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) was conducting an investigation to find out how the gun, reportedly owned by Go, was slipped into the prison.

Steve after his arrest by authorities.(Police file)

Calumpang said inmates recounted how Go played with his .38 caliber revolver on Tuesday morning while repeatedly pointing it at Cresenciano Erana, one of the 48 other inmates who he shared the same detention cell with.

“Accordingly, he (Erana) was irritated, prompting him to snatch the gun, and fired it at Go,” said Calumpang who was inside his office when the shooting incident happened.

Erana, 41, who is facing multiple murder and drug charges, surrendered the firearm to a jail guard as operatives of the Mandaue City police arrived to conduct an investigation.

He admitted killing Go who threatened to kill him while inmates were playing hantak (head-or-tail game done by tossing coins) inside the detention cell.

Go’s sister, who refused to be identified, rushed to the hospital where her brother was brought after the shooting.
She believed someone instructed Erana to kill Go.

“Nganong dili na man lang nila pasagdan ang korte nga maoy mohukom? Kinahanglan ba gyud diay nga patyon? (Why didn’t they just let the court judge him? Do they really have to kill him?),” she told reporters.

Cecilia Ferrer, mother of Go’s girlfriend, echoed the family’s cry for justice as they asked the National Bureau of Investigation and the Commission on Human Rights in Central Visayas (CHR-7) to look into the incident.

But CHR-7 Director Arvin Odron said they would leave the investigation to the police for now.

“Considering that the suspect was identified as an ordinary civilian and in the absence of any iota of proof that the government tolerated or acquiesced to such killing, the CHR will leave the criminal investigation to our law enforcement officers,” he told Cebu Daily News.

“Abuses of civilians resulting to crimes should be left to the proper authorities for investigation to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to trial,” he added.

Go was arrested and was detained at the Mandaue City Jail in 2016.

He, however, had to be transferred to the Talisay City Jail after he was involved in fights. But the transfer didn’t stop Go from picking up fights, prompting jail officials to move him to Carcar City Jail.

The body of Steve Go, who was shot dead inside the jail, is placed on a stretcher to be transported to the Mandaue City Hospital morgue.

Still, Go didn’t shape up and was transferred back to the Mandaue City Jail in October last year. Since then, jail officials conducted a series of surprise inspections at the Mandaue City Jail after receiving reports that Go received several banned items.

True enough, mobile phones, cash, disposable lighters and drug paraphernalia were seized from Go’s cell.

Seven jail guards were relieved from their posts for allegedly conniving with Go in the smuggling of some forbidden items.

But the entry of contrabands at the Mandaue City Jail continued.

Last June 15, authorities again found prohibited items, including a sex toy, inside Go’s detention cell.

Calumpang said he was planning to ask the court to transfer Go from the Mandaue City Jail to the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) in Cebu City.

Go was the nephew of former Talisay City Councilor Emil Go who was gunned down by unknown assailants in his residence last March 21.

He was also the cousin of Frederick Go, a councilor of Barangay Bulacao, Talisay City, who was caught in a drug raid in Talisay City on March 14, 2017.

Go, who was tagged a drug lord by both the police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, was accused of continuing his illegal drugs operation even while inside the jail — an allegation denied by his lawyer Bienvenido Baring in a press conference last year. /with reports from Doris Mae Mondragon