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BY RESEL JOY TIANERO
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Saturday, June 10, 2017
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IAN PAUL CORDERO/PN
SCENE OF THE CRIME. Policemen inspect the body of this man shot to death in Barangay Buhang, Jaro, Iloilo City. The victim is a tricycle driver and a suspected drug personality in Molo district, according to the police.
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ILOILO City – A tricycle driver, bearing signs he may have been summarily executed, was found dead in a secluded area of Barangay Buhang, Jaro district near the floodway.
The 30-year-old Joseph Bahandi of Bo. Cochero, Molo district had multiple gunshot wounds on the head and body. His eyes and mouth were wrapped in packing tape. His hands were bound with packing tape, too.
Jaro policemen recovered from Bahandi’s pocket 11 sachets of shabu.
A security guard posted at a nearby privately-owned lot discovered Bahandi’s body around 6 a.m. yesterday.
According to Night Hawk Security Agency’s Elmer Toledo, 44, he heard five bursts of gunfire around 2 a.m.
Some four hours later while doing his route inspection of nearby areas, Toledo found an unspent bullet of a .45 handgun, an empty bullet shell of a 12-gauge shotgun and a pair of slippers.
He said this prompted him to further inspect the area until he discovered Bahandi’s body.
Bahandi was last seen alive around 1 a.m. yesterday in front of a pharmacy adjacent to the Iloilo Doctors’ Hospital. He was picking up tricycle passengers there, said Senior Inspector Tranquilino Querubin, Jaro police chief.
As of this writing, Jaro police investigators were still figuring out how a tricycle driver plying his trade in Molo could end up dead in faraway Jaro.
Hours after Bahandi’s body was found, his tricycle was recovered in Barangay Pakiad, Oton, Iloilo.
Bahandi was renting the tricycle from owner Reynaldo Noquera of Molo.
Noquero told the police Bahandi’s area only covered Molo.
Bahandi voluntarily turned himself in to the police following last year’s launching of Oplan Double Barrel, the Philippine National Police’s campaign against illegal drugs, according to Senior Inspector Marlon Valencia, Molo police chief.
Bahandi claimed he was a drug user, not a pusher, said Valencia.
The tricycle driver also figured in a homicide case in 2004, added the police chief.
Iloilo is no stranger to summary executions. Just this Jan. 20, two dead men from Jaro district were found with heads covered with duct tape and hands tied. Their heads and bodies bore multiple gunshot wounds.
Dante Laluma, 40, of Barangay Cubay, Jaro district was found dead around 5:30 a.m. in Barangay Tinorian, Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo.
Nearly an hour after, Romel Andrew Cagbay, 32, of Sitio 27, Barangay Tabuc Suba, Jaro was fished out of a creek in Barangay Banuyao, La Paz district.
Citing the way the two were executed, Inspector Raymond Celoso, Barotac Nuevo police chief, said the killings were likely related.
A .45 pistol was used on both men.
The police did not have suspects up to now.
On June 4, 2016 as then President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, who told police to get drug suspects dead or alive, prepared to assume office, two men with criminal records were separately found dead with gunshot wounds.
Drug suspect Lou Pacto, 33, was found dead in Barangay San Jose, Arevalo district.
A resident of Barangay Sooc also in Arevalo, Pacto died of multiple gunshot wounds on the head and body.
His hands were bound together with packing taping. His head was also wrapped with the tape.
Near Pacto’s body the police recovered eight empty shells of a .45 pistol and five empty shells of a .9mm pistol.
An hour after, the body of 36-year-old Sherwin Taasan was recovered in Barangay San Vicente Pulo, Leganes, Iloilo.
A resident of Barangay Rizal Pala-pala, Iloilo City, Taasan was a suspected petty street criminal linked to several cases of snatching and pocket slashing.
He had two gunshot wounds on the head, two more on the right shoulder and one on the chest. His hands were tied with a black shoelace.
No suspects were identified./PN
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