BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO and STEPHEN LOUIE CHECA
ILOILO City – The police may have nipped in the bud a newly formed drug group.
In two separate operations in this city and Antique province just seven hours apart, the suspected group leader and two underlings were killed, according to the Regional Drug Enforcement Unit (RDEU) of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6).
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 Sunday, said Senior Inspector Kinnith Bermejo, RDEU commander.
Seven hours after, RDEU and local policemen killed in Barangay San Pedro, San Jose, Antique two men whom Bermejo said were Poblacion’s “down lines.”
The Gobatanga cousins of Zone 3, Barangay Ticud, La Paz district – Jennifer, 32, and Gayrell, 38 – were shot dead around 4:45 a.m. yesterday.
The three deaths brought to 63 the number of suspected drug personalities killed in police operations in Western Visayas since the start of the Duterte administration’s drug war in July 2016, PRO-6 data showed.
Poblacion died of four gunshot wounds moments after selling to an undercover police officer a sachet of shabu for P2,000, said Bermejo.
The suspect fired a shot at the police poseur buyer but missed; the cop’s backup fired at Poblacion, according to the RDEU chief.
Policemen recovered a grenade, a .38 revolver and 20 sachets of shabu valued at P60,000, added Bermejo.
“Based on our intelligence report, his supplier was from Manila,” he revealed.
Poblacon’s live-in partner Duff denied there was a buy-bust.
They were about to sleep when policemen suddenly barged into their house, said Duff.
According to Bermejo, it was only a week ago when Poblacion was released from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology prison facility in Barangay Ungka, Jaro where he was detained for the crime of robbery with homicide.
“He formed his group even while in detention,” said Bermejo. “He was obviously ready to engage us. He was armed with a gun and a grenade.”
Poblacion was a brother of convicted robbery group leader Jonathan Poblacion who is currently serving a prison sentence at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City for the crime of kidnapping.
In the San Jose, Antique operation, according to Bermejo, the Gobatanga cousins sold two sachets of shabu to an undercover police officer for P2,500.
But after realizing they were being entrapped, Jennifer Gobatanga drew a .38 caliber and shot at the police twice – the first one hit the ground and the other one misfired, said Bermejo.
Gayrell Gobatanga, meanwhile, pulled out an MK2 fragmentation grenade and tried to lob it at the police, according to the RDEU chief.
Joint elements of the RDEU, Antique Police Provincial Office’s Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit (APPO-PDEU) and San Jose police station managed to maim the cousins.
The Gobatangas died while being rushed to the Angel Salazar Memorial District Hospital.
According to Superintendent Marc Anthony Darroca of the San Jose police, transaction with the suspects started in the morning of Sept. 2.
The buy-bust proved, he said, that the shabu supply in Antique was from Iloilo and drug traffickers there were doing business in the province, too.
Policemen recovered from the suspects four more sachets of shabu and P3,598.
In a radio interview, the wife of Jennifer denied her husband was a pusher.
According to Marilou, her husband used to be a drug user but stopped after voluntarily turning himself over to the police in 2016.
She wondered how Jennifer ended up in San Jose.
Marilou said she last saw her husband alive on Sunday when he left their house. She said he did not say where he was going./PN
Maayo gid mag likaw sa bala ang mga pulis. Wala gid na igo sila. Bisan si Jennifer na baye naki pag draw pa sa pulis ha ha ha. Ka halam utan nga rason ba. Mag basa kalang sang naration sang mga pulis naga kadlaw ka nga na init sang ila sarswela kag drama.