P/Chief Supt. Debold Sinas
A DRUG syndicate might be behind the shooting incident that killed five men in Barangay Malubog on Thursday, according to the top official of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7).
Chief Supt. Debold Sinas, the director of PRO-7, said that after conducting a follow up investigation on the incident, they believed that there was a drug group syndicate behind the killing of the five men.
“We let the investigation to proceed usa. But we are leaning on that (there is a drug syndicate involved),” said Sinas in a press conference yesterday.
Last Thursday, five men were found dead at a secluded area along the Transcentral Highway in Barangay Malubog, Cebu City.
The killings were believed to be perpetrated by a single group, based on the account of two persons who managed to run way and survive the incident.
Considering that they were able to recover at least 105 grams of suspected shabu from the victims, Sinas said the killings were related to illegal drugs.
Sinas visited Charmaine Puran and Antonio Belande, the two survivors of the Malubog killings, at the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) on Friday morning.
Sinas claimed that Puran had earlier made a slip and mentioned to the investigators that she knew “the people behind” the incident, and they were not policemen as she had claimed in earlier media interviews.
“Wala man g’yud direct statement sila nga pulis ang naghimo ato,” said Sinas.
(The survivors did not have any direct statement that the police were behind the shooting incident)
But Sinas said they have yet to formally interview Puran about the incident.
“Most likely kahibawo g’yud siya kinsa mga suspect. Pero sa iyahang mga naunang sulti we are looking into away-away sa mga sindikato,” said Sinas.
(Most likely Puran knew who the suspects are. But based on her initial statement to the investigators, we are looking into an infighting among drug syndicates)
Sinas added that it was too early to say who were the syndicates involved.
According to Sinas, the two survivors already agreed to cooperate with the police.
“Mo sogot na sila nga mo investigate ta. Amo pa sila ipa-recover. (They both agreed that we will investigate. We will let them recover first.) No pressure on our investigation,” said Sinas.