ILOILO City – Motorcycle-riding gunmen shot to death a drug suspect on Rizal Street, City Proper on Saturday morning. His attackers caught up with Nestor Piagola Jr. and fired at him after a brief chase, police said.
Investigators at the Iloilo City Police Office’s Station 1 believed the incident was related to illegal drugs but could not yet provide further details as of this writing.
All they know so far was that Piagola was a “drug surrenderer” and that his father had been convicted of a drug offense.
Piagola – a 33-year-old tricycle driver from Barangay Zamora-Melliza, City Proper – turned himself in to Police Station 1 as part of the crackdown on drugs of the Duterte administration.
As part of the campaign, police urged identified drug users or peddlers to surrender and promise to no longer engage in the illicit trade.
“[Piagola’s] father is incarcerated in Muntinlupa,” Police Station 1 head Superintendent Jonathan Pablito said, referring to the New Bilibid Prison, the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa City.
“[The father] was a subject of a buy-bust operation. Na-convict siya at nakulong sa Muntinlupa ngayon. Itong anak niya is a drug surrenderer,” said Pablito.
Footage captured by a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera of a nearby establishment showed that “riding-in-tandem” gunmen killed Piagola at around 9:45 a.m., said the police official.
“Yes, riding-in-tandem ang tumira sa victim,” Pablito said, specifying that there were two suspects. “Ang investigators natin obtained copies of the CCTV footage.”
“Nagkaroon ng konting habulan, for a short distance. The gunman pursued the victim and pinaputokan niya [at close] range,” he added.
With the severity of his gunshot wounds, Piagola did not have any chance of survival, according to the leader of a Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) team that inspected the site of the shooting.
Piagola was hit four times, said Superintendent Hilarion Ruga.
“May igo sa left side sang face, then sa dalom sang iya dulunggan sa left man, sa butkon ya sa right, kag sa dalom sang ilok niya,” Ruga said.
But the SOCO team recovered from the crime scene five empty shells and three deformed slugs of a .45 handgun.
Investigators have yet to identify the suspects, who fled to an unknown direction after the incident.
Citing initial investigation, Pablito said the gunmen used a black Yamaha Mio motorcycle and were clad in black shirts.
One of them was wearing a bonnet, the other a cap. None of them was wearing a helmet, said Pablito.
Piagola’s family at the crime scene refused to comment. The victim’s body was taken to a funeral home./PN
