3 drug syndicate members tagged in cop's slay killed

BATANGAS, Philippines  – Three suspected members of a drug syndicate tagged in the recent killing of a police official were slain in a shootout with lawmen in Lemery town yesterday morning, authorities said.

Senior Superintendent Rosauro Acio, Batangas police director, said two of the three slain suspects were identified as Jose Atienza and Marcelina Marquez, while the third, a man, remained unidentified as of press time. 

Acio said the three were cruising the Diokno Highway on a motorcycle when they were flagged down at a police checkpoint in Barangay Mahayahay but refused to stop, prompting lawmen to chase them toward Barangay Dahilig in Lemery town.

After a few minutes, police were able to corner them, leading to the shootout. Two caliber .45 pistols and a caliber .38 revolver were seized from the slain suspects.

Citing intelligence information, Acio said the three belonged to the so-called “Bankers drug syndicate” operating in the first and second districts of Batangas.

Acio said the drug syndicate had a run-in with slain Superintendent Rodney Ramirez when the latter was still an intelligence officer in the province.

The New People’s Army (NPA) earlier owned up though to the killing of Ramirez in Taal town as “blood payment” for his alleged involvement in the killings of militant civilians in Southern Tagalog.

In an e-mail, Apolinario Matienza, spokesman of the NPA’s Eduardo Dagil Command, said they imposed the death penalty on Ramirez for also allegedly heading the demolition of houses of poor families in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna when he was the local police chief.  

Matienza also tagged Ramirez in the killings of a militant leader, a certain Sabina “Nanay Sabeng” Ariola, and Lemery barangay chairman Kenneth Reyes, a local leader of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan.

Acio, however, believes that the rebels lacked the capability to kill Ramirez, saying their hit men normally use motorcycles not vans as the police official’s killers had used.

Ramirez was gunned down in Taal town while on his bike by at least six men onboard a Mitsubishi L-300.