‘Bloody Thursday’ 14 dead

One-Time, Big-Time kills 9 suspects; 5 bodies found in Cebu City’s mountain village, survivors point to police as assailants

EXECUTION SURVIVOR/OCT 4,2018: Two of the victims in the execution in brgy Malubog, Cebu City. Two people survives. (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)

While most Cebuanos were sleeping, 14 persons were killed in separate incidents in Talisay and Cebu cities past midnight on Thursday.

Nine were killed in what authorities claimed as a “shootout” during the simultaneous police operations dubbed as “One-Time Big-Time.”

Five others were found dead – two on the roadside and three inside a van — along the TransCentral Highway in Barangay Malubog in Cebu City.

Although the police denied that the Malubog shooting was part of the police operation, two survivors claimed that policemen brought them to the mountain village where they were shot past 3 a.m.

Both Antonio Belande, a habal-habal driver, and Sharmine Puran hid in the bushes for more than three hours.

They also emerged from hiding when village officials, reporters and investigators started arriving at the crime scene past 6 a.m.

When the city ambulance arrived to bring them to the hospital, the two pleaded for reporters to accompany them and not the police.

But Chief Supt. Dibold Sinas, police director for Central Visayas, strongly denied that the police were involved in the Malubog shooting.

“Naminaw ko sa iyang interview sa radyo. Kinsay nagsulti nga police? You should know who dangled the idea. Somebody induced that idea. (I listened to Belande’s interview over the radio. Who said that the suspects here were the police? You should know who dangled the idea),” he said, insinuating that the reporters were asking leading questions to the victim.

He claimed that they talked to Belande who didn’t identify the police as the shooters.

“When I talked to Belande, however, he never mentioned that the police were behind the killing. In fact, he’s not afraid of the policemen,” he added during a press conference on Thursday.

Sinas said Belande’s statement to the media may have just been a “spur of the moment” since the shooting survivor was still traumatized.

The police general, however, said the death of the nine suspects in Talisay and Cebu cities was because they put up a fight.

Six of these were in Talisay while three others were in Cebu City. All allegedly tried to put up a fight and ended up dead.

Police were still conducting an inventory of the seized items and other “accomplishments” following the special operation.

From midnight to sunrise on Thursday, police conducted its One Time, Big Time operations where operatives served 106 search warrants in the different parts of Cebu.

Senior Supt. Royina Garma, director of the Cebu City Police Office, said they were also conducting an investigation on the shooting incident in Barangay Malubog.

“It’s still under investigation so we could not make any conclusions for now. We already sent investigators to analyze the statement of the survivors so that we would know what happened,” she said.

Garma, however, said the victims may have been killed by a drug syndicate for failing to remit proceeds of illegal drugs.

But Belande denied any involvement in illegal drugs, saying he and another habal-habal driver, Christopher Tangag, were merely hired to bring two customers — a woman and a man — to an apartment in Sitio Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe from Barangay Basak -San Nicolas, Cebu City, for a fee of P200 past 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

While waiting for their customers to emerge from the apartment, he said six persons introduced themselves as policemen and took the keys of their motorcycles.

Some wore their uniforms. Others were in civilian clothes but were armed.

“Sure gyud ko nga polis. Sa wala pa mi taptapi, nagpaila na sila nga polis. Naka-uniform ang uban nila. Naay wala naka-uniform pero dunay armas. (I’m sure that they were policemen. Before we were blindfolded, they introduced themselves as policemen. Some were in uniform. Others were in civilian clothes but were armed),” he said.

Puran, for her part, said she and her companion took the habal-habal to the apartment in Banawa to deliver drugs to another woman.

But when they arrived at the apartment, she added, there were already alleged members of the Special Weapons and Tactics.

The four were blindfolded while their hands were tied with plastic handcuffs before they were loaded into a white van.

They were told that they would be taken to the “campo (camp).”

While inside the vehicle, he heard his captors talking to one “Chief Bautista” and “Sir Abella” who were apparently giving instructions through the cellular phone.

Belande said he noticed that they were moving uphill and to an isolated area since he could hardly hear any sound of another vehicle.

Realizing that they would be killed, he said he started moving his hands to free himself from the handcuffs.

Later, they arrived at the dimly lit portion of TransCentral Highway, which connects Cebu City to northwestern Cebu.

As they were being unloaded from the van, he heard Tangag pleading to their captors not to kill him.

“Please don’t kill me. I have children,” Belande heard Tangag, pleading.

Belande said he noticed that their two motorcycles were also at the roadside. Only the headlights of the vehicle illuminated the area.

Before the perpetrators started shooting at them, he said he immediately rolled off the cliff.

The assailants kept shooting at him, hitting him in the left side of his stomach. He, however, ignored the gunshot wound and continued rolling down until he was hidden in the bushes.

“I really sensed that something bad would happen to us. If I didn’t run away and roll down the hills, I know they would kill me,” Belande said in Cebuano.

“Just imagine. I didn’t do anything wrong. I never engaged in any illegal activity and I was about to be killed. That is not right,” he added as his voice cracked.

Puran, for her part, said she ran as fast as her legs could take her when the shooting started.

In an TV interview, she said the three other victims were already in Malubog when they arrived in the area.

She, however, didn’t know who they were.

Although the five victims remained unidentified, Garma maintained that the shooting in Malubog may be drug related.

“The fact remains that illegal drugs were seized inside the van,” she said.

Investigators also recovered cellphones, an iPad, money bills and four guns from the crime scene.

Sinas said they were coordinating with the Land Transportation Office to determine who owned the van and the two other motorcycles.

The four firearms recovered inside the van would be subjected to ballistic tests to find out whether or not they were used in other crimes.

Sinas said they would also examine the cellphone because the police might be able to find important information that could be used.

Reacting on the plan of the Commission on Human Rights in Central Visayas to investigate the killings on Thursday, the police general maintained that they were open to any probe.

“Whoever wants to investigate, whether complainants prefer the National Bureau of Investigation or the Commission on Human Rights, go ahead.

We are ready to defend ourselves. We will face whatever charges. But please give us the benefit of the doubt,” Sinas explained.

But he stressed that they had nothing to do with the Malubog shootings.

He said he already assigned two policemen to secure Belande and Puran who were confined in the hospital.

“I talked to them, not to influence their statements. We will not interfere because if we do that, they can recant their statements later on. Ayaw mo pataka og tudlo if wala mo kahibaw. (Just don’t say something if you really have no idea what happened),” Sinas said.

“All I want is for them to be safe and to tell us what they know. They are considered victims here, not suspects. So I offered them security because the persons behind the shooting incident might get back at them. I pity them and I really wanted to help,” he added.

But if the shooting survivors didn’t trust the police, Sinas said, Belande and Puran could do whatever they wanted.

“I told them, if you don’t like the police, tell me kay mopahawa mi. Unsa man, nahadlok mo sa polis? Kay tangtangon nako ang inyong police security? If dili mo gusto, then kuhaon nako ang police security. Good luck ninyo,” he said.
(I told them, if you don’t like the police, tell me because we will move away. Are you afraid of policemen? Because I will pull out your police security? If you don’t like us, then I will remove your security? Good luck to you).

Some Cebu policemen had been linked to at least two separate shooting incidents in the past three months.

Last July 30, PO1 Eugene Calumba was killed by the bodyguard of Tejero Barangay Councilor Jessielou Cadungog after the policeman alleged tried to ambush the councilman’s vehicle.

Barely a week later, on August 8, SPO1 Roderick Balili was linked to the ambush of Von Rian Tecson, an agent of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency(PDEA-7) agent, in Carcar City.

Balili also died of two gunshot wounds in the chest allegedly inflicted by Tecson as he lay dying in his vehicle.

Sinas denied Balili’s involvement in Tecson’s death, saying the policeman died of accidental firing. /with reports from Norman Mendoza, Jessa Mae Sotto, Paul Lauro, Delta Letigio, and Morexette Marie Erram