“I’D rather have a dead drug suspect than a dead policeman.”
This was the blunt reply of the chief of police of Cebu province, Senior Supt. Noel Gillamac, when asked about the death of a supected big-time drug pusher who was killed in an anti-drug raid in Liloan town recently which some quarters said was a rubout.
Noel Codeniera, alias Muslim, was shot at close range twice in the chest by police raiders after he allegedly tried to grab a gun.
The police were serving a search warrant from the Mandaue City Regional Trial Court against Codeniera when the gunfight happened.
An autopsy conducted on Codeniera’s cadaver showed that he was shot at close range, which drew speculations that there was no shootout as what the police claimed.
Gillamac yesterday said he welcomes any investigation on how the police conducted the operation.
Police said that while the campaign succeeded in tightening the noose on drug syndicates operating in Central Visayas, the authorities also lost two of its men in the campaign.
Ubay, Bohol chief of police George Caña was ambushed by the group of suspected drug dealer Owen Rosales, who in turn was killed in a follow-up operation.
In Tagbilaran City, PO1 Michael Ejoc was fatally shot while three of his companions were wounded after they were raked with gunfire when they tried to pounce on a drug den in barangay Poblacion.
The suspected gunman, Artemio Tare Jr. a.k.a. Bigeon Tare, was killed in a follow up operation.