Killed cops
The official version was that it was an anti-drug operation. An undercover agent supposedly bought P2,000 worth of shabu from Senior Insp. Raymond Hortezuela in Barangay Tipolo, Mandaue City, prompting elements of the Counter-Intelligence Task Force, Regional Special Operations Group (RSOG) 7 and Drug Enforcement Unit in Mandaue City to attempt an arrest.
Hortezuela allegedly resisted arrest and drew his gun. The ensuing shootout wounded Hortezuela, who was rushed to the hospital but was declared dead on arrival. Hortezuela’s relatives cried for justice.
Three days later, PO3 Jonathan Tilos of Barangay Tisa, Cebu City, reportedly engaged in a heated argument with an unidentified man. He was later shot when he got out of a fitness gym in Barangay Poblacion. Alegria town. He was rushed to the hospital but, like Hortezuela, was declared dead on arrival.
Tilos was assigned to the Provincial Intelligence Branch of the Cebu Provincial Police Office before he was transferred to the Ginatilan Police Station.
On June 19, PO2 Melchizedek Batomalaque was about to ride his motorcycle in front of his house in Toledo City when he was shot by two men on a motorcycle. He died on the spot. Police Regional Office 7 Chief Debold Sinas later identified Batomalaque as having been in President Duterte’s list of alleged narco-policemen.
Yesterday, elements of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Regional Intelligence Division (RID) in Bohol killed the controversial SPO1 Adonis Dumpit in what was reported earlier as a drug bust but later described as an interception in Tagbilaran City in Bohol. The NBI claimed Dumpit was a high-level drug pusher and illegal drugs trade protector.
The recent spate of killings involving policemen may be isolated incidents or these may be part of something sinister. Was it just mere coincidence that three of the four policemen were linked to the illegal drug trade before they were killed? Was it just mere coincidence that the killings happened after Philippine National Police Chief Oscar Albayalde succeeded Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and announced his intention to cleanse the police organization of scalawags?
Jumping to conclusions would be wrong. Thus, we hope that police probers adequately answer the interesting questions that surfaced after the killings.