Police consider involvement in illegal drugs as the possible motive in the killing of a 30-year-old man who was gunned down in a broad daylight on Thursday afternoon, June 23, 2022. | Photo courtesy of CCPO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police have identified the killer of the 30-year-old man, who was shot dead in broad daylight along a Cebu City street on Thursday, June 23, and they have tagged the fatal shooting as a drug-related killing.
This was after Cebu City policemen identified the victim and found out through messages in the victim’s cellphone that he was allegedly conducting an illegal drug transaction prior to the shooting.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for administration of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said that the victim Gabriel Raffinan, 30, a resident of Barangay Quiot Pardo in Cebu City, was also allegedly a “big time drug player.”
Parilla said that they had also identified the suspect in the killing of Raffinan, but he, however, refused to provide more details because of an ongoing police operation.
He could only say that the suspect was a drug personality allegedly like the victim.
Parilla said that after a background check, they found out that Raffinan was allegedly a “big time drug player” and that Raffinan allegedly had five downlines or drug distributors under him, who had all been previously arrested by the police.
Illegal Drug Transactions
Parilla further said that the victim and the suspect knew each other and that based on the messages that they recovered from the victim’s mobile phone, these two were allegedly having a drug transaction.
“Based didto sa cellphone nga na recover, gitawag ang biktima sa suspect kay mubayad og P5,000, duna syay bayranan, nagka-onsehan. Mao to na nga nagpatubil sya sa gasoline station, iyang gibilin ang motor ug naglakaw sya sa kadtong gunman,” Parilla said.
(Based on the cellphone we recovered, the victim was called by this suspect as the latter would pay P5,000 to him, the transaction went bad. So the victim had his motorcycle refueled at a gasoline station, and he left it behind at the gasoline station for a while and went on foot to the gunman.)
“Ang kining mga downline aning biktima kay nangadakpan na. So mura og duna ni silay mga grudges sa iyang amo nga naa sa sud sa prisohan. Accordingly, every time nga madakpan iyang downline, iyahang isulti nga nadakpan tanan asta ang mga bayad,” he added.
(The downlines of the victims were already arrested. Perhaps, he had grudges toward the alleged leader who is currently detained in a jail. Accordingly, every time a downline will be arrested, the victim would allegedly report to the leader that the proceeds were among those seized by the police.)
Victim’s background
Parilla said that Raffinan was arrested twice for illegal drugs in January (for possession of illegal drugs) and June 2017 (for possession and selling of illegal drugs), but he was released from jail because of plea bargaining.
He also said that they would coordinate with prosecutors and judges to revisit and check whoever could avail of the plea bargaining.
“Kani siya nga observation, atong nakita nga dunay mga pabalik-pabalik na lang ang iyang offense bitaw unya makaplea bargain ra gihapon. So we will bring this up sa atoang meeting unya sa prosecutors and judges,” Parilla said.
(This is also our observation, we noticed that there are some repeat offenders that can still avail of the plea bargaining. So we will bring this up in our meeting with the prosecutors and judges here.)
“Atoa ni nga ibring up kung unsa ang mga procedure para makaavail og plea bargaining ang usa ka dinakpan,” he said.
(We will bring this up on what would be the procedure in availing the plea bargaining of an arrested person.)
Raffinan was shot on the head by a gunman, who had a cohort who served as his getaway vehicle driver, last Thursday afternoon, June 23, 2022. The shooting incident happened near a gasoline station in Barangay San Nicolas Proper in Cebu City.
READ: Indian national killed in broad daylight in Lacion
/dbs