Drug war claims 64th WV casualty

BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO and IAN PAUL CORDERO

ILOILO City – A barangay councilman of Jelicuon Montinola, Cabatuan, Iloilo died in an antidrug operation of the police yesterday.

Jonathan Baron became the 64th drug war casualty in Western Visayas since the campaign started on July 2016, Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) data showed.

Baron, 56, was a high-value target, said Senior Inspector Sullen Domingo, Cabatuan police chief.
“He shot a police asset after realizing he was being entrapped,” said Domingo.

The PRO-6’s Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (RDEU) and Cabatuan police carried out the buy-bust operation around 12:20 p.m. at the suspect’s house.

A police asset was able to buy a sachet of shabu from Baron for P500 prior to the exchange of fire.

According to Domingo, Baron voluntarily surrendered in 2016 but continued peddling shabu while attending a drug rehabilitation program of the Department of Health.

“The suspect got suspicious of his shabu buyer, our asset. He drew a gun,” said Domingo.

Baron died of gunshot wounds on his chest and back while being rushed to the Ramon Tabiana Memorial District Hospital in Barangay Pungtod, Cabatuan.
If the Cabatuan police were to be believed, Baron was selling illegal drugs in central Iloilo covering the towns of New Lucena, Janiuay, Lambunao, Calinog, and Mina.

From what the police so far gathered, Baron’s shabu supply came from Manila.

The police’s Scene of the Crime Operatives recovered eight plastic packs of suspected shabu, a .22 revolver, two empty shells of a .22 revolver, two empty shells of a .9mm
pistol, and an M67 hand grenade.

The suspect’s daughter, Janna Mae, 21, was also arrested. Detained at the Cabatuan police station, she faces a charge for conspiracy.

Early this week, the drug war claimed its 61st, 62nd and 63rd casualties in two separate operations of the PRO-6’s Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (RDEU) in Iloilo City and San Jose, Antique.

The 34-year-old Gabriel Poblacion resisted arrest during a buy-bust operation so policemen shot him at his house in Barangay Tacas, Jaro district around 9:45 p.m. on Sept. 2.

Seven hours later, RDEU and local policemen killed two Gobatanga cousins of Zone 3, Barangay Ticud, La Paz district – Jennifer, 32, and Gayrell, 38 – in Barangay San Pedro, San Jose, Antique.
They were Poblacion’s “down lines”, according to RDEU chief, Senior Inspector Kinnith Bermejo.
The three all resisted arrest, he said./PN