BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – A drug suspect was shot, stabbed and beheaded late Tuesday night on Rosario Street, Barangay 38 here. The head was recovered almost three kilometers away in Purok Sigay, Barangay 2.
Next to the headless body was a placard with the words: “Bayad sa utang!!! Interest pa lang…Capital preparar para suma total!!! Halong Bacolod.”
Glenn Paul Castillo was a native of General Trias, Cavite. He had been residing in Barangay Cabug here.
Around 9:15 p.m. two Toyota Innova vehicles stopped on Rosario Street, initial investigation of Police Station 1 showed.
Witnesses told the police around eight people were occupying the vehicles.
Some of them got down from the vehicles and started firing their guns, according to Police Major Ramel Sarona, commander of Police Station 1. Another proceeded to behead Castillo.
The men placed the head in a sack, boarded their vehicles and sped away, leaving behind the decapitated Castillo, hands cuffed in the back.
Police recovered several empty .9mm and .45 bullet casings in the crime scene.
The crime scene was where Police Staff Sergeant Joseph Nepomuceno was gunned down around 5:15 p.m. on Sunday.
Police believed Castillo was already dead when he was beheaded.
In Purok Sigay, Barangay 2, according to an alias Mario, he was parking his motorcycle when a vehicle approached him.
If Mario were to believe, the occupants of the vehicle told him of a “plastic trash” on the road in front of a nearby store.
The vehicle then sped away, Mario said.
When he checked what the men have meant, Mario saw a plastic bag covered in what he described as a sticky substance. Beside it was a sack.
Mario said he called another person nearby to switch his flashlight on, and found Castillo’s head inside.
Mario sought the help of barangay officials and the nearby Police Station 2.
The location where the head was dropped was some 50 to 70 meters away from the barangay hall of Barangay 2.
POSSIBLE LINK?
According to Sarona, Castillo was arrested in a buy-bust operation on Aug. 22 which resulted in the confiscation of P156,800 worth of suspected shabu.
Castillo was later freed; he managed to post bail for his drug case on Aug. 27.
Police are now looking at the possible connection of Castillo’s and Nepomuceno’s killings.
The slain cop participated in the operation which led to Castillo’s arrest.
“I-check naman naton kun ano nga kaso ang gin-handle ni Staff Sergeant Nepomuceno para ma-establish naton ang connection sa duwa ka insidente,” Sarona said.
Sarona added that the suspects may have been “angry” at Castillo./PN
