Talisay drug bust turns into shootout: Two dead, 1 wounded, P2.7M suspected shabu seized

Scene of the Crime Operatives process the crime scene where drug suspect, Alex Cuyogan, Jhoana Delar, were killed after a shootout with police during a buy-bust operation in Sitio Mananga, Barangay Tabunok in Talisay City. |Benjie Talisic

TALISAY CITY, Cebu, Philippines — A police buy-bust operation turned into a running gunbattle between the police and their target and ended in the death of the drug suspect and her live-in partner and the wounding of an alleged cohort.

The bloody incident happened when a joint police team led by the Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB) conducted a buy-bust operation in the afternoon of March 25 in Sitio Mananga, Barangay Tabunok in Talisay City.

Alex Cuyogan, 35, the target of the police operation, and his common-law wife, Jhoanna Mae Delar, were killed in the shootout at past 4 p.m. while Resty Abellana, an alleged cohort of Cuyogan, was wounded in the shootout, said Senior Inspector Alejandro Batobalonos, PIB chief, in an interview on March 25 with Cebu Daily News Digital.

Batobalonos said they also confiscated 400 grams of suspected shabu from the bag of the dead suspect.

He said that the seized drugs had an estimated Dangerous Drugs Board value of P2.7 million.

Last February, police also killed a high-value target in a drug buy-bust operation then. The suspect, Rolando Valdez was also killed in a shootout with the police then.

Read more: High value drug suspect killed in a shootout with police in Talisay City

How it happened

On Monday’s police operation, Batobalonos said that after making the test drug buy, and when they moved in to arrest Cuyogan, the suspect, pulled out a gun and fired at the approaching police officers.

Cuyogan, however, missed and the police officers fired back hitting Cuyogan in the body and fatally wounding Delar, who was standing near Cuyogan at that time.

When Delar fell, the wounded Cuyogan ran and fired some shots at the pursuing police officers.

Cuyogan ran towards the house of Abellana, whom Batobalonos claimed tried to hide the suspect from the pursuing police officers.

As Cuyogan entered Abellana allegedly met him and tried to hide him, but with the pursuing police officers nearby, Cuyogan fired and in the return volley of fire, Abellana got hit and was wounded.

Cuyogan then left the wounded Abellana and went inside her house.

It was a tense moment for the police, who were thinking the worse since  a three-year-old child was inside the house when Cuyogan entered it.

Fortunately, Cuyogan did not hurt the child and police managed to safely remove the child from harm’s way.

The shooting ended when police cornered Cuyogan inside the house and shot him dead.

One escaped

Batobalonos said that a certain Jaylord, another cohort of Cuyogan managed to escape during the shootout .

He said that charges would still be filed against Jaylord despite his being at large.

Batobalonos said that they conducted the operation after receiving reports of Cuyogan’s alleged illegal drug activities in the area.

He said aside from that, residents also sought their help since they claimed that Cuyogan would allegedly fire his gun indiscriminately every now and then.

Monday’s operation against Cuyogan was conducted by a joint police team that included Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO), Provincial Mobile Force Company and the Talisay City Police Station./dbs