Fears heightened over ‘surrender or die’ reports

LAST Sunday, a drug dealer in Lapu-Lapu City. Then, a suspected drug user in Talisay City at dawn, yesterday. What do they have in common?

Both were killed just days after failing to heed warnings to stop any involvement in the illegal drug trade.

Forty-six-year-old Julieta Echavez of Barangay Lawaan 3, Talisay died from gunshot wounds in her chest, leg and chin after she was shot by two unidentified men at around 2 a.m. yesterday. Her companion, 30-year-old Ralph Gabasa, suffered wounds in the left leg and right arm but survived the attack.

The two alleged drug users were reportedly advised to surrender as part of the barangay’s Oplan Tukhang (Tuktok Hangyo) campaign last Thursday but both refused. Tuktok hangyo, Cebuano for knock and persuade, is a nationwide Duterte administration campaign to convince drug personalities to surrender or be hunted down.

According to PO3 Erwin Carbonquillo of the Talisay City Police Station, Echavez was having a conversation with Gabasa inside the latter’s house when two unidentified armed men barged in through the unlocked door and shot the victims several times. Police have yet to establish the motive for the shooting.

Just last Sunday, a noted drug dealer in Lapu-Lapu City identified as Rexan Manggudatu was killed in what police described as a “legitimate police operation” after Manggudatu resisted arrest by reportedly trying to throw a grenade at police poseur buyers when he was cornered following a buy-bust operation.

Earlier, Manggudatu reportedly also ignored warnings to stop his illegal drug activities during PNP’s Oplan Tukhang and was not among the nearly 80 drug personalities who surrendered to the Lapu-Lapu City police last June 30.

In Compostela town, northern Cebu, a 40-year-old man allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade was killed at around 11 p.m. last Friday in Barangay Estaca. The victim was identified as Allan Morales.

PO3 Michael Magallon of Compostela Police Station said the victim was inside his house when someone called him from outside and then shot him.

Surrenderees

Meanwhile, more than 300 self-confessed drug personalities from mountain villages in Cebu City surrendered to police Saturday morning for fear of being arrested or hunted down.

The ‘surrenderees’ from the hilly lands of Sapangdaku, Kalunasan Pulangbato, Cambinocot, Lusaran and Binaliw, Talamban and Guadalupe were mostly drug users according to the Philippine National Police (PNP).

“They personally surrendered to clear their names. At the same time they promised to cooperate with us and to completely stop in their illegal trade,” PO1 Gringo Muldez of the Talamban Police Station told Cebu Daily News in Cebuano.

Muldez added that most of those who surrendered did so even without being asked by police and barangay officials in the ongoing Oplan Tukhang.
Rarry, a 25-year-old habal-habal (motorcycle-for-hire) driver, one of those who surrendered, said that it was just boredom and peer pressure that led him to use drugs.

“I am scared now because of the heightened campaign against illegal drugs. I don’t want to be in a rehabilitation center,” he told CDN.
Cambinocot Barangay Captain Reynold Lauron said that village officials are planning to reintegrate the drug users and pushers from their barangay into farming as an alternative source of livelihood.

“They are farmers ever since. Long ago, our government gave them portions of land in the mountains where they can do their own farming but as years passed, we found out that they have been snorting shabu in the secluded portions of the mountains. Now, they surrendered and agreed to stop doing drugs. In return, we will give them fertilizers so that they can start tilling and planting back their land,” Lauron said.

Meanwhile, in southern Cebu, from July 6 till yesterday, a total of 88 drug personalities surrendered to police in the town of Dalaguete while in Toledo City, 60 others voluntarily confessed to their drug involvement. / UP Cebu Intern AMY MACALINAO