15 drug suspects killed, 200 arrested in Cavite

CAMP GEN.PANTALEON,GARCIA, IMUS, Cavite – At least 15 drug suspects were killed and about 200 others arrested in operations conducted by the police in Cavite province’s upland and lowland districts since April 15.

Senior Superintendent William M. Segun, Cavite Police Provincial Office (PPO) director, confirmed the death toll and the number of persons arrested during an interview with the Manila Bulletin.

Segun said the killings involved drug pushers who resisted arresting police teams in buy-bust operations.

There were also over 200 drug suspects nabbed by teams in day and night-time operations in the areas in the last one-and-a-half months, Segun said.

A report released by Chief Superintendent Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar, Police Regional Office (IV-A) director, showed that Cavite had the most number of drug suspects arrested in the Calabarzon (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) area from January to May this year.

A report also showed that the latest fatal police encounter happened before dawn Monday in Barangay Sabutan in Silang, an upland municipality in the 5th District of Cavite.

SPO1 Robert Vito Dimailig, case investigator, identified the fatality as Eduardo Villarmino, alias “Blackpair.”

Villarmino opted to shoot it out with the anti-drug team during the operation which forced the team to fire back, killing him on the spot.

Officer-on-case Dimailig said that an unidentified companion escaped on board a black motorcycle during the exchange of gunfire.

Recovered from the scene were Villarmino’s .38 cal. revolver with five bullets and a shell in its barrel, nine small sachets containing “shabu,” and R200, the buy-bust marked money, according to Dimailig.