Pubdate: Wed, 04 May 2005
Source: Sun.Star Cebu (Philippines)
Copyright: 2005 Sun.Star
Contact:  http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1690
Author: Jovy S. Taghoy
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Summary+Execution
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/areas/Philippines

MAN IN DRUG LIST SLAIN IN PARK LOT

A suspected bigtime drug pusher included in the 1997 expose of Rep.
Antonio Cuenco was shot and killed in a mall parking area yesterday,
raising suspicions he was another victim of vigilante-style killings
in Cebu City.

SPO4 Erlando Metante, one of the responding homicide investigators,
identified the victim as Rosamun de los Santos, 29, who lived in
Barangay Suba.

If investigators declare that de los Santos was killed by a vigilante
group, he would be the 50th victim since the rash of killings started
last Dec. 22.

De los Santos did not make it to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical
Center (VSMMC) alive, after multiple gunshot wounds in his head.

Metante's team, assisted by operatives from the Crime Suppression Unit
(CSU), recovered four empty shells fired from a .45 gun.

Considering de los Santos' alleged involvement in the illegal drug
trade, Metante said investigators considering a drug-related vendetta
as a probable motive.

Family

But he is not discounting the possibility that the killers were
vigilantes, or someone who harbored an old grudge against de los
Santos, who had a tough reputation in Pasil.

"Ilado daw ni siya nga namaligya og drug diha sa Pasil. Gikahadlukan
pud siya sa Pasil (He was said to have sold drugs in Pasil, where he
was feared)," Metante said.

Metante said the victim was killed at 3 p.m. just as he was about to
leave the SM City parking lot at the North Reclamation Area with his
wife Libena and a child.

The victim had just stepped inside the family's Nissan van (GGC 329),
taking the front passenger seat, when a speeding motorcycle with two
men on board arrived.

De los Santos was just about to close the door when one of the men,
who wore helmets, hurriedly disembarked and shot him.

Watch List

The gunman then transferred to the left side of the vehicle and fired
more shots at de los Santos.

Both men then hurriedly left.

No one in the area, Metante said, managed to take down the plate
number, the color or the type of motorcycle the perpetrators used.

Supt. Pablo Labra II, chief of the Criminal Investigation and
Intelligence Bureau (CIIB), said in a separate interview that de los
Santos was in the CIIB's order of battle for suspected drug pushers.

He was also in the watch list of the Philippine Drug Enforcement
Agency (PDEA).

Labra said de los Santos was previously arrested by the Vice Control
Section of the Cebu City Police Office and during PDEA operations.

Based on intelligence information gathered by the city police, de los
Santos allegedly replaced suspected big-time drug pusher Wilfredo
"Lao-Lao" Cabanit in the illegal drug trade after the latter's arrest
last year. 
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