By JOEY NACALABAN
Correspondent .
AUTHORITIES riddled an impoverished trisikad driver with bullets during an alleged buy-and-bust operation in a cemetery in Naawan, Misamis Oriental over the weekend.
Senior Insp. Marlon Lanioso, Manticao police chief, identitified the dead as 21-year-old Lurme Lunas, a lowly trisikad driver from an impoverished family in the town.
Lunas was the first fatality since the operation “Toktok-Hangyo” or “Tokhang” was revived by the police in Misamis Oriental.
Police alleged that the trisikad driver fought back with a revolver.
Lunas was shot several times inside a public cemetery near the town center at around 10 am.
He succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds all over.
Lanioso said the young man was killed during an operation carried out by members of the Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit, Misamis Oriental police intelligence unit, Naawan police station, and the Manticao police station.
Lanioso said Lunas and a police “asset” earlier agreed to meet in the cemetery for an illegal drug transaction.
He said Lunas was about to give suspected illegal drugs to the “asset” when the suspect realized that there were police officers.
“Mibunot man siya deretso sa iyang pusil ug dayon pusil sa pulis maayo nalang wala naigo mao tong gibalosan pud siyag pusil sa gadakop unta niya,” Lanioso said.
Taken from the suspect’s possession was a loaded caliber .38 revolver and a sachet contaning suspected shabu.
Lanioso said Lunas’s parents signed a waiver for the autopsy of the body and, supposedly, they would not press charges against the officers. This claim could not be independently validated at presstime.
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