BACOLOD City – A senior police officer was killed during a drug buy-bust operation conducted by the police’s Counter Intelligence Task Force (CITF) and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) inside a school campus in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte late Monday.
Chief Inspector Joseph Ortega, Dipolog police head, identified the slain high-ranking police official as Superintendent Santiago Ylanan Rapiz, head of the logistics branch of the provincial police.
Rapiz, 54, was a resident Barangay Taculing, Bacolod City. He was one of seven police officers relieved and reassigned to Police Regional Office (PRO) 9 for allegedly being a “drug protector”, according to an affidavit by drug pusher-turned-whistleblower Ricky Sereno.
Other police officers were reassigned to Luzon – in the provinces of Cagayan, Isabela and Cordillera. The last assignment of Rapiz was in Victorias City, Negros Occidental.
Rapiz formerly held the position of police chief in Escalante City, Cadiz City, as well as being chief of the Police Community Relation (PCR) in the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office and Bacolod City Police Office.
Ortega said Rapiz was playing basketball in the gymnasium of Andres Bonifacio College in Barangay Miputak, Dipolog City when he went out to meet a poseur-buyer at 7:40 p.m. on Monday.
However, after receiving P50,000 in marked money for the suspected shabu, Rapiz reportedly sensed the authorities and quickly ran to the side of the gym while firing his pistol.
Ortega said the CITF and PDEA operatives fired back, hitting Rapiz. The police officer was declared dead upon arrival at Dipolog’s Corazon Aquino Memorial Hospital.
Police sources linked Rapiz to Iloilo City drug lord Melvin Odicta Sr. who was gunned down on Aug. 29, 2016 while disembarking from a passenger ship at the jetty port in Caticlan, Malay, Aklan.
Rapiz, who was reportedly included in President Rodrigo Duterte’s narco list, was relieved from his post in Bacolod City and sent to Dipolog City after Odicta’s killing.
When pressed for answers why it took two years to pin down Rapiz, provincial police director Senior Supt. Michael Macapagal declined to respond and instead referred the media to the Dipolog City police under Ortega.
Meanwhile, Chief Superintendent Emmanuel Luis Licup, Police Regional Office 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) director, said the joint operation of the CITF and PDEA was a legitimate operation.
PDEA, Licup said, coordinated with PRO-9 prior to the operation.
The CITF has already neutralized three policemen, including Rapiz, involved in illegal drug activities in the region.
The first two, both non-officers, were killed in a shootout in Barangay Ayala, this city last Aug. 18.
The two were assigned with the Station Drug Enforcement Unit of the Police Station 9 under the Zamboanga City Police.
A source from Dipolog City claims that Rapiz was up to be recommended by Zamboanga del Norte Governor Roberto Uy to become the PRO provincial director.
Rapiz’s family reportedly left Bacolod City Monday night on their way to Dipolog City via Dumaguete in Negros Oriental. (With a report from PNA/PN)
