Justified, says Aganon of killing of Carmen drug suspect

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent .

“SELF-DEFENSE.”

This was how  city police director Senior Supt. Nelson Aganon attempted to justify the killing of a 25-year-old drug suspect during an alleged undercover operation on Serina Street in Carmen, this city, shortly before midnight on Friday.

The suspect, identified as Rotsen Cubar a.k.a. Bunso of Igpit, Opol, Misamis Oriental, was shot to the chest after he allegedly fired shots at an undercover cop who was about to arrest him following an alleged drug deal.

Senior Insp. Excyllo Alcantara, who led the police team composed of members of the city police’s drug enforcement unit, crime against persons and property desk, City Intelligence Unit, and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, said Cubar was armed with a caliber .45 pistol.

Alcantara said Cubar repeatedly fired at police officers and even hit SPO2 Alphie Sabaduquia’s bullet proof vest.

He said it was PO2 Alfred Ken Santos, who served as the poseur buyer, who fired back, killing the suspect on the spot.

Alcantara said investigators collected from the crime scene a caliber .45 pistol with a magazine loaded with one bullet, two 9mm pistol cartridges, four caliber .45 pistol cartridges, a sachet of suspected shabu, two lighters, some personal belongings, and cash, including a P1,000  bill that was used in the undercover operation.

Aganon said the Cocpo regrets that the buy-and-bust operation resulted in the death of a suspect but he said the officers had no choice but to fight back.

“Cocpo is very sad… Since from the very beginning, we don’t want to kill any suspect during our anti-illegal operations. But since  the suspect posed dangers and actually fired at our operating personnel, we had no choice but to retaliate,” Aganon said.

He said the undercover operation was “legitimate.”

Aganon added: “Cocpo extends its sympathies to the bereaved family of the suspect.”

Cocpo spokesman Supt. Mardy Hortillosa said Cubar was the first fatality in the Cocpo’s “war on drugs” in Cagayan de Oro since 2016.

There were two other fatalities in the city but Hortillosa said the suspects were killed in anti-drug operations of Camp Alagar and Camp Crame, respectively. He said one was killed at the Cogon area during a Camp Alagar operation, and the other was killed at Xavier Heights when the suspect allegedly lobbed a grenade at members of a special operations unit of Camp Crame.