Drug personalities operating in the province were given 75 days to end their operations otherwise they will be  “eradicated” under Oplan Wagtang which now doubles |”Oplan Tokhang”

The stern warning was issued last Thursday by PS/Supt. Felipe Natividad who was installed as the new PNP provincial director vice PS/Supt. Dennis Agustin who will be leaving the record as the top drug buster among all PNP provincial directors assigned in Bohol.
Beating the 3-6 months Duterte-set deadline, the new police operation targets druglords and big-time drug runners and ready to shoot those who resist arrest.

Drug ring hit squad also reportedly tries to catch up in shutting down those who tend to squeal, while the tight vigilante group have the cops’ back and pursue difficult targets to aid the law enforcers in the “clean-up” drive.

The number of drug personalities yielding to the police already reached 16,797 in entire Bohol under Oplan Tokhang or almost half of the Central Visayas record accomplished in a half month since President Rodrigo Duterte takes over Malacañang.

Col. Natividad hinted the number will still increase in the coming days as some areas in Bohol extended the Tokhang deadline.

Natividad sets deadline for Bohol to get rid of illegal drugs in two and a half months or 75 days, but with the cooperation of the community.

Central Visayas region contributed 25,219 surrenderees to the more than 41,000 record nationwide as of last week.

The least came from Western Visayas which recorded 2,670; while Eastern Visayas posted 6,869; and 6,903 from the Negros Island Region.

In Tagbilaran City, four of the 943 drug personalities who surrendered had been arrested when found to have gone back to business.

Tagbilaran City chief of police, Senior Insp. George Vale, closed the deadline last Friday.

Inabanga police extended the tokhang deadline to July 22.

In Corella, some regular employees of the municipal government who had been using illegal drugs had resigned upon the advice of Mayor Jose Nicanor Tocmo.

Tocmo also said there are five job-order workers had surrendered under Oplan Tokhang who were given a chance to reform in order not to lose their jobs.

DEAD MEN WALKING

Murders of suspected drug personalities who refused to yield under Oplan Tokhang already commenced.

In just a week, four drug personalities had fallen- -three of them Tokhang dissidents.

The victims included a 28-year-old barangay kagawad of Calanghan in Sagbayan, identified as one Leoann Navarro- -also known as “Baloloy”- -who was shot by an unidentified man at around 6:05 a.m. on July 15 right at his doorstep.

Accordingly, he was a known drug runner in the neighborhood.

He had been separated from his live-in partner.

According to the victim’s 11-year-old son, Jejade Navarro, he was with his father in their house during that time but he was at the back of the house preparing to take a bath when somebody called out “ayo, ayo”.

His father opened the door and he heard the man saying “Kagawad, paadtoon ka ni mayor” (Kagawad, mayor asked you to come) to which his father responded, “Si Mayor Ric (Suarez- -Sagbayan mayor) lage?”

The man allegedly answered “Dili. Mayor sa Carmen” (No. [it’s] the mayor of Carmen.

Shortly, he heard a burst of gunfire and saw his father had already fallen on the floor. Two more burst followed, and all he could do was run to coconut trees and hid.

Accordingly, the said malefactor casually walked towards his motorcycle, and left as if nothing had happened.

The child added that when he was hiding behind a coconut tree, he saw two other men on a separate motorcycle, wherein the driver of that motorcycle also drew a firearm during the incident.

They also left alongside with that malefactor who gunned down his father.

The scene of the crime operatives (SOCO) recovered three fired cartridges of cal. 45 pistol at the crime scene.

The victim sustained a gunshot wound on the upper portion of his throat, one on the back and two on the abdomen.

According to Dr. Dewy Demandante, the municipal health officer, the victim died from multiple gunshot wounds.

It showed in the investigation that prior to the incident, a man on board a motorcycle stopped by the house of one Ulysses Goder, about a hundred meters away from the house of the victim, and asked for the house of Kagawad Baloloy and Goder pointed to the kagawad’s house.

Goder is an uncle of the victim.

According to witnesses, the gunman was 5’7” in height, slim-built and with brown skin, clad in jacket with its hood covering his face.

On the same day, another drug runner was shot to death by riding in tandem at around 5 p.m. while hanging around a fish stall in barangay Canhaway, Guindulman.

The victim, Alvin Cagas, died on the spot with seven gunshot wounds- -three in the head, two on the right arm, and one on the right side of his body.

Cagas, 20, was identified as a resident of barangay Buyog in Jagna and was believed to have gone to barangay Canhaway in Guindulman to sell shabu.

Some believed the victim was just waiting for a ride.

When responding police officers checked the victim’s body, they recovered 14 sachets of shabu in his pocket.

According to police investigators in Guindulman, the victim had been known as a big-time drug pusher in Jagna and Guindulman.

The SOCO recovered five empty shells of unknown caliber, one slightly deformed slug which hit the stem of a mahogany tree from the crime scene.

The police team also recovered a lighter, a cellphone, and cash amounting P2,175 from the victim’s pocket.

Investigators believed Cagas incurred delinquency in his remittance of the proceeds from the sale of shabu to his handling drug ring, as one of the possible motives for his murder.

Cagas had reportedly been advised by friends and relatives, including a police officer, to stop his involvement in the illegal drugs trade as it might cost his life one day.

However, Cagas allegedly just kept on promising to do so, but never actually heeded.

At around 1:30 a.m. on June 12, a suspected gun-for-hire, identified as one Conchito Escabas, was killed in a shootout with the police team in barangay Catagbacan, Loon.

The Municipal Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group (MAIDSOTG) of Loon Police Station and the Bohol SWAT Team caught one Escabas handing a sachet of shabu to a poseur-buyer in exchange for P500.

Escabas allegedly tried to flee as he pulled a gun and shot the cops, prompting the composite police team to fire back.

The police team recovered an unlicensed cal .38 revolver, three 3 live and one fired bullet, another sachet of shabu and the 500-peso bill marked money from Escabas, in addition to the one he handed to the poseur-buyer.

The sachets of shabu had been estimated to weigh 0.15 grams with estimated value of P1,770.

Escabas, a resident of barangay Nahawan in Clarin, turned out to be one of the suspects in the murder of a known shabu queen in Clarin, identified as Alma Sabejon.

Sabejon, also known as “Madame”, was in the top 10 drug personalities watchlist in their town, according to PO1 Jayson Sentino of Clarin Police Station.

Sentino said they got an intelligence information that Sabejon allegedly incurred an accumulation of delinquency in the remittance of the proceeds due her supplier of shabu.

Investigators still continue tracing, though, the identity of Sabejon’s so-called shabu supplier who could be the mastermind in her murder at around 1 p.m. on July 11.

Investigators considered delinquency in the remittance of the proceeds from the shabu business as the possible motive for the murder of the victim identified as Alma

The 42-year-old victim was on her way home to sitio Lagsing, barangay Bacani in Clarin on board her motorcycle when the riding in tandem positioned parallel to her on the road.

The backrider then shot her upon gaining vantage point.

Sabejon lost control on the wheels and crashed on the road.

The gunman got off the motorcycle and went closer to her and shot her again.

Sabejon still managed to got up and ran towards a Ken-Ken bus parked by the roadside to unload passengers.

She hurriedly boarded the bus to ask for help, but the riding in tandem pursued her and the gunman fired the last shot on her head while inside the bus.

Sabejon sustained five gunshot wounds, one in the head that finished her off.

Witnesses saw the riding in tandem (both men with cloth covering their faces) fleeing towards the Sagbayan direction.

According to Clarin police investigators, the Oplan Tok-hang team in their barangay had just approached Sabejon on July 8, or three days earlier, to yield to the police. However, Sabejon refused.

According to Sentino, they had monitored that Sabejon was also hooked in drugs, making her both a pusher and a user, which could be the reason she incurred delinquency in the illegal drugs trade.

The police said her husband was aware of her involvement in the illegal drugs trade, but could only do so much since he is away, working abroad.