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By JOEY NACALABAN
and NITZ ARANCON
Correspondents .

CAMP Alagar would look into shooting deaths of drug suspects in separate undercover buy-and-bust operations here this month, officials said over the weekend.

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Supt. Surki Sereñas, spokesman of the police regional office, said Camp Alagar’s Regional Internal Affairs Service automatically conducts a motu proprio investigations whenever police operations are marred by shootings.

Supt. Mardy Hortillosa, Cagayan de Oro City Police Office spokesman, said the city police’s Internal Affairs Service would also look into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Rotsen Cubar, 25, on Seriña St. in Carmen over a week ago, and Abdul Wahad at Karisna Karinugan, Barangay Balulang on Wednesday.

On Saturday, members of the Cocpo killed another drug suspect, 40-year-old construction worker Brandon Yap, inside his rented room in  Bayanihan, Barangay 35.

According to the officers who shot them, Cubar, Wahad and Yap were all armed and put up a fight, forcing law enforcers to use force.

Cubar, Wahad and Yap had something in common — they were poor people who allegedly peddled shabu and who, despite their poverty, had the means to own guns and grenades. They also did not have much money the day they were killed like in the case of Yap who only had P70, plus a P500-bill which the police said was “marked money.”

The circumstances surrounding Wahad’s shooting death had striking similarities with the killing of another drug suspect in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, also this month. They allegedly tried to explode a grenade during the police operations, forcing officers to shoot them.

Sereñas assured that Rias and its Cocpo counterpart would remain independent as investigators look into the shooting deaths even if no complaint is filed by the dead men’s relatives.

“Pero mas maayo kung naay complaint gikan sa hingtungdan para makahatag gyud sila og tumang detalye sa panghitabo,” Sereñas said.

There were allegations made by relatives of the slain suspects that officers planted pieces of evidence.

Hortillosa said the investigation would determine the legitimacy of the police operations, and Cocpo would send the findings to Camp Alagar.

He said if the investigation results show irregularities, the officers involved would be charged administratively and even dismissed from the service.

But Hortillosa said none of the officers involved in the shooting deaths would be slapped with preventive suspension orders “kay kon ingon ana ang mahitabo, basin wala nay pulis nga motrabaho, kay basin ma-suspended sila.”

Councilor Romeo Calizo said he sees no need for a city council investigation into the shooting deaths but added that he would conduct an “informal inquiry” and talk to city police director Senior Supt. Nelson Aganon about the buy-and-bust operations. The councilor is the chairman of the city council’s police committee.

Calizo said he also considers the shooting deaths of Cubar, Wahad and Yap as “isolated cases” in the local police campaign against illegal drugs.

“I trust the Cocpo. For sometime, arrests were made and no one got killed. In other words, most of the police operations were well-planned. As for the recent deaths, what we want to know are the circumstances behind the killings,” said Calizo, adding that if these were “in defense of authority, reasonable man na siguro.”

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