Bohol, Samar cases illustrate brutality of campaign vs drugs
CLARIN, Bohol—Alma Arcales Sabejon, 42, tried to flee her assailants, wounded in the initial volley of fire. Desperate, she pleaded for help to bus passengers who could just watch as the gunmen ran after her and finished her off with a shot in the head.
Ariel Pitong Unay was in his hotel room when policemen came knocking at 4:30 a.m. Minutes later, he lay dead in the bed with multiple gunshot wounds.
Theirs is the latest in a string of killings being attributed to the heightened war on drugs launched by the Duterte administration.
Their cases also define the brutality with which the war is being waged and which had drawn statements of concern from human rights advocates and government officials who support the war but are shocked by how it is being waged.
Sabejon, also known in police blotters by her alias “Madame,” has been tagged as a top drug financier in Bohol province.
Unay is a former soldier who, police said, supplies drugs to pushers in the province of Northern Samar, one of the country’s poorest.
The circumstances that led to their deaths are all too familiar, although taking place in different settings with what appeared to be different scripts.
Sabejon was on her motorcycle heading for the village of Bacani in the town of Clarin, Bohol, when she was chased by two men on another motorcycle.
One of the men shot Sabejon, causing her motorcycle to crash and sending her sprawling on the pavement. The man who shot her calmly approached Sabejon and continued to pull the trigger.
Although wounded, Sabejon ran to a bus, which was unloading passengers, to plead for help.
The two men went after her and shot her in the head, sending her slumping lifeless on the floor of the bus to the horror of passengers on board.
PO3 Roderick Maglangit, Clarin police investigator, said Sabejon is on the list of top 10 drug personalities in the town.
Sabejon, according to Maglangit, refused to heed an appeal, made by Bacani village chair Victor Sanchez and Clarin police chief Insp. Fernando Peroramas, for her to surrender through the Oplan Tokhang (knock and plead) campaign of the Philippine National Police.
A surrender ceremony was held on July 8. Sabejon was absent.
Unay was at Johnjohn Hotel in Catarman City, Northern Samar, when police set him up for a buy-bust operation.
An undercover policeman was supposed to buy shabu from Unay in Room 202 when Unay, according to Supt. Alberto Garcia, Catarman police chief, sensed he was being set up and started shooting.
Policemen knocked on the door but Unay, said Garcia, “immediately fired upon us.” “So we fought back,” Garcia said.
Forensics examiners said they recovered shabu, P8,000 in cash, illegal drug paraphernalia and two guns in Unay’s room.
The war on drugs is taking its toll also on individuals who had become paranoid about being the next target.
This is apparently the case of a 27-year-old construction worker who surrendered and admitted killing a couple he suspected of wrongly identifying him to police as a drug user.
Eduardo Ardiente is now detained at the Cebu City police stockade pending the filing of two counts of murder and a count of frustrated murder against him.
Supt. Michael Bastes, head of the Cebu City police intelligence branch, said the knife used by Ardiente to kill couple Ricardo and Francisca Cupta and wound a neighbor, Cyric Balolot, had been found.
“I had enough,” said Ardiente. “Everyday they kept telling me ‘you surrender to authorities,’” he said.
Ardiente said the Cupta couple and Balolot kept accusing him of using drugs and stealing.
He said he stopped using drugs in 2010. “I drink and I smoke but I don’t use drugs anymore,” he said. With a report from Ador Vincent S. Mayol, Inquirer Visayas
