BY RHENJIE MARIE CALANTAS
ILOILO – A drug suspect was shot to death and P2.5 million worth of suspected shabu was seized in an antidrug operation in Sitio Naluoyan, Barangay Sapao, Dumangas town around 3:53 a.m. yesterday.
Gerald Joseph Ruben Gelario, around 35 to 40 years old, was a resident of Florvel Homes Subdivision, Barangay Buray, Oton, Iloilo.
Police Major Harold Rendora, team leader of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office’s Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit (PDEU), said Gelario succumbed to five gunshot wounds: three on his chest, one under his nose, and one on his forehead.
He was pronounced “dead on arrival” at the town’s Ramon D. Duremdes District Hospital.
Rendora, in an interview with DYRI RMN Iloilo, said the suspect sensed that he was being entrapped and fired a gun, resulting in the shootout.
Prior to this, a police poseur buyer bought from the suspect a sachet of suspected shabu for P20,000.
Police further recovered from the suspect’s possession a belt bag containing big plastic sachets of suspected shabu weighing around 380 grams and valued at around P2,584,000.
“Naga-engage ini siya sa illegal drugs didto sa area ng Leganes, Pavia, Dumangas, Mina, Pototan, Janiuay, and Barotac Nuevo, and also in the city,” said Rendora./PN
