Drug user suspect in Batangas massacre

BATANGAS CITY — A drug-crazed suspect mercilessly hacked a family of three including a 7-year-old girl inside their home at Bagudpud, Tuy, Batangas early yesterday morning.

P/SInsp. Ana Jauniata Asi, Tuy police chief, identified the victims as Criselda Adobe, 44, and her children Erickson, 16 and Lea, 7.

Reports said suspect Christopher Estipona, 24, resident of the same barangay barged in at Adobe’s house at around 1 a.m. yesterday and hacked all the victims with a bolo knife killing them on the spot.

The suspect, however, spared Criselda’s 4-month-old child who was sleeping inside their room. Her two other sons, Froilan, 12, and Ariel, 10, slept at their relatives house when the incident happened.

Ernesto, Criselda’s husband, was in Division Market delivering their mango harvest when he heard about the tragic news.

Meanwhile, another P40-million worth of marijuana was torched by Cordillera policemen recently, bringing to more than P300 million the worth of marijuana plants destroyed in the region since the start of this year.

Cordillera police regional director Chief Supt. George Aliño bared that some 18,000 fully grown marijuana plants including 8,000 marijuana seedlings were discovered by Ifugao policemen, narcotics agents of the Anti-Narcotics Office 14 and Ifugao Provincial Mobile Group on Thursday in a two-hectare plantation at sitio Ihogwas, Barangay North Cababuyan, Hingyon town, Ifugao.

The operation was led by Chief Inspector Mario Buyyucan, Ifugao police chief of intelligence and investigation.

Most of the plants were burned on site by the operating policemen. — With Artemio Dumlao