Manhunt on for gunmen who shot dead two policemen in Moalboal drug den

COP KILLERS ON THE RUN

LOOKING FOR CLUES. Cebu Daily News correspondent Apple Mae Ta-as uses a stick to sift through a pit where discarded aluminum foil and other drug paraphernalia were dumped just across a 3-room shanty occupied by suspected drug pusher, Michael Aquino. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Police are hunting down the assailants of two Moalboal policemen and  four drug suspects who managed to escape following a botched Friday night drug raid in the southern Cebu town.

Senior Supt. Rodolfo Albotra, chief of the Provincial Intelligence Branch is leading the pursuit.

Shots were fired about 8 p.m. outside a cottage, where the police were conducting an inventory of shabu found there.

PO3 Fabio Fernandez and PO1 Alrasid Jimlani were outside providing   “perimeter security” when assailants arrived on three motorcycles at the   house of  suspected drug pusher, Michael Aquino, in sitio Banilad,  barangay Tomonoy.

Other members of the raiding team and two barangay officials were inside  the shanty doing an inventory of the drugs cache  when gunfire erupted outside, said Moalboal town’s acting chief of police, Insp. Edgardo Labe.

They  rushed outside but  found no trace of the gunmen who had fled.

Four men, who were allegedly caught sniffing shabu and were made to wait outside the shanty, managed to escape. Police said they were still in handcuffs when they fled. The four were identified as Phil John Ediza, Rolly Tabanao, Allen Amad and a certain Don Joe.

“Pagkahuman sa buto-buto, mingaw na. Akong gitawag usa-usa ang akong mga sakop. Ako silang gi-tagsa-tagsa og tawag sa ilang pangalan.

Pagtawag nako nila Fernandez ug Jimlani, wa na sila nitubag (When the firing stopped, I called out the names of my men one by one but Fernandez and Jimlani did not respond),” Labe told CDN.

Fernandez was fatally shot near the eye while Jimlani was shot in the back.

They were immediately taken to Badian District Hospital where they were declared dead.

Fernandez, whose service pistol was nowhere to be found, was due to retire next year while Jimlani, a Muslim, will be buried today in line with Islamic tradition.

The two slain policemen were supposed to be joined by two other police officers, PO1 Niño Ridaza and PO2 Manuelito Abrenica.

PO3 FABIO FERNANDEZ

PO1 ALRASID JIMLANI

But at the time of the attack, Abrenica was sent back to the police station to get a camera while Ridaza was reportedly tinkering with their patrol car which got stuck in mud around 300 meters away from the crime scene.

The police in Moalboal town were serving a search warrant issued by Judge Leopoldo Cañete of the Barili Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 60 against Michael Aquino, who was under surveillance for two weeks.

Aquino, however, got wind of the raid and managed to elude the lawmen.

According to Insp. Labe, they immediately started doing an inventory of the items seized from Aquino’s shanty in the presence of barangay captain Marvin Dio and a barangay councilman.

“Pagkahuman sa raid, akoang gipakuha ang mga barangay officials para inventory. Samtang naghulat mi. Ako na sila gitagaan og instructions to secure the area. And if naay muabot nga mga customer kay paulion nalang kay amo naman na neutralize (After the raid, I directed my men to fetch the barangay officials so we can start the inventory. I told my men who were tasked to stand guard to send home any one coming into the shanty as we have already ‘neutralized’ the area.),” Labe said.

Police said two motorcycles with female back-riders approached the area and were flagged down by Fernandez before another motorcycle arrived.

Labe said they could not say who fired the first shot.

Aquino’s shanty which has three rooms is about 5-to-10 meters away from the national road and is hidden from plain view by coconut trees and tall blades of cogon grass.

Discarded aluminum foils were scattered all over the shanty and in a pit dug a few meters away. A hammock and a half-full liquor bottle were in one room when CDN visited the crime scene.

According to the police and the barangay officials, they raided the area in February and in June, dismantled a shanty that was being used as a drug den by a relative of Aquino who was also arrested for involvement in the illegal drug trade.

Police said Aquino was also operating in the neighboring towns of Alcantara, Badian and Dumanjug.

Recovered from the shanty were: 71 rolled tin foil, 19 small packs of shabu, a .45 caliber pistol, a caliber .357 revolver  with four live rounds of ammunition and four assorted cellphones. Two spent .45 caliber shells were also recovered from the crime scene.

A driver’s license believed to be owned by the rider of the motorcycle that Fernandez earlier flagged down was found near the policeman’s body. /with reports from Correspondents Edison delos Angeles and Chito O. Aragon