Police: Anger prompted fellow inmate to kill drug suspect Romy Ramas

Autopsy results show that Romy Ramas died from gunshot wounds on his head and body. | Contributed Photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines –He wanted revenge.

Jade Saladaga, 35, had told jail officials that his anger for Romy Ramas, 33, prompted him to kill his fellow inmate at the Mandaue City Jail while the latter was playing basketball on Monday morning, July 29.

Police Colonel Jonathan Abella, head of the Mandaue City Police Office, shared the outcome of the investigation of Senior Inspector Mark Tanacao of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in a press conference this morning, July 30, held at the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7).

Quoting Tanacao’s investigation, Abella said that Saladaga claimed that Ramas would beat him up every morning because of suspicions that he was an informant who would tip the police of the latter’s illegal activities inside the city jail.

Read more: Inmate allegedly part of Steve Go’s group killed inside Mandaue City Jail

Ramas died from gunshot wounds on his head and body.

Abella said they continue to wait for Ramas’ family to decide if they will press murder charges against Saladaga, who was jailed in December 2014 for the illegal possession of firearms and drugs.

Saladaga is a resident of Barangay Mantuyong in Mandaue City.

Read More: Mandaue City Police director says inmate killed in city jail was shot, not stabbed

Hearing talks from fellow inmates that Saladaga had killed Ramas, Tanacao immediately confronted Saladaga on the matter.

Saladaga did not deny the crime during his talk with Tanacao on Monday afternoon, Abella said.

The inmate, Abella said, he had asked a relative, who visited him in jail on Saturday, to secure the gun that he used to kill Ramas.

Said relative tossed the .38 caliber revolver at him while he waited near the city jail’s kitchen area. Tossing a gun into the jail facility was easy because its fence was not too high.

Read More: Alleged drug lord killed by fellow inmate in Mandaue City Jail

Brigadier General Debold Sinas, PRO-7 director, said that Ramas was a member of the Steve Go drug syndicate. He took over the group’s operation after Go was killed on June 2018 while detained at the Mandaue City Jail.

The information was confirmed by Go’s live-in-partner, Sinas said.

Sinas said they are now looking into Ramas’ possible involvement on an attempt by three men, whom Mandaue City police killed in a buy-bust operation on July 23, to transport P11 million worth of shabu into the city.

Read More: 3 men killed in Mandaue City encounter are members of Ygot drug syndicate

While they continue to investigate Ramas killing, Sinas said that personnel from the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) will be deployed to augment security at the city jail. Augmentation will continue while BJMP works on the improve of the facility’s fence. /dcb