BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The top suspected drug lord in Negros Occidental was found dead on Wednesday in the town of Baras in Rizal province.
Michael Divinagracia was positively identified late Thursday night, after the Baras municipal police station received a phone call from their counterparts in Silay City, Negros Occidental.
Divinagracia may have been summarily executed, said Police Captain Junard Briones, Baras police chief, in a radio interview yesterday.
Divinagracia sustained several gunshot wounds to the body, initial investigation and his post-mortem examination revealed. He also showed signs of being strangled using a steel wire.
It was believed that he died of strangulation while the gunshots wounds were made to “finish” him off. Hours prior to the incident, witnesses told police, Divinagracia was spotted with an unidentified man.
Police Colonel Robert Petate, Silay City police chief, said Divinagracia was positively identified based on the driver’s license recovered from his remains.
Based on records from the Silay City police station, Divinagracia surrendered to the city’s police force in 2016 in line with the government’s Oplan: Tokhang.
However, in January 2018 Divinagracia was linked to the P18-million drug shipment bound for Negros Occidental was intercepted at the Dumangas Port in Iloilo by joint operatives of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOCPPO), Iloilo Police Provincial Office and the Philippine Coast Guard.
The illegal drugs originated in Metro Manila and were smuggled via the Batangas Port and into Caticlan Port in Aklan prior to being intercepted in Dumangas.
In November 2019, Divinagracia’s name surfaced anew after operatives of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) Regional Drug Enforcement Unit seized an estimated P7.3 million worth of shabu along South Capitol Road in Bacolod City.
Following the incident, Divinagracia vanished from Negros Occidental.
In January 2020, another P3.5 million worth of shabu was also seized in Barangay Mambulac in Silay City. Following the string of high-value drug confiscations, then NOCPPO director and now retired Police Colonel Romeo Baleros placed a P200,000 bounty on Divinagracia’s head. The bounty was later increased to P500,000.
Aside from illegal drug activities, Divinagracia was also believed to have led a criminal group in Negros Occidental and was linked to several high-level robbery hold-up incidents in the province and in Bacolod City./PN
