BACOLOD City – An illegal drug suspect was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police officers in Barangay Banago on Thursday.
Ramy Poja, suspected leader of the Poja drug group, was the No. 1 most wanted person and a “high-value” antidrug campaign target of Police Station 3.
Police found Poja and two companions – Roberto Lim and Rusty Constantino –holed up in the house of Salvador Poja at around 4:20 p.m.
Bacolod City Police Office operatives were out to arrest the three after an encounter that injured an officer at 1:30 a.m., a report from the Police Regional Office 6 showed.
Officers negotiated for their surrender but the three fired at them, police said.
Lim was also killed in the shootout while Constantino was injured.
Police also arrested Poja’s girlfriend Claudine Bindol and Cyril Jarina.
Earlier that day Senior Inspector Victor Paulino, Police Station 3 commander, was in an anti-illegal gambling operation when he learned that Poja and his companions were in the village.
Responding officers chanced upon the three men, who engaged them in a shootout. Paulino was hit on the left thigh.
Senior Superintendent Francisco Ebreo, acting city police director, directed the follow-up operation that led to Poja’s death. He believed the three were armed with M16s.
Two civilians were hit by stray bullets on their bodies during the afternoon shootout – Jhodan Cordova, 20, and mother Erlinda – police said.
The mother and son were confined at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital.
Paulino was treated at the Bacolod Adventist Medical Center as an outpatient./PN
