7 drug suspects killed in shootings

MANILA, Philippines — A dismissed police officer and six other drug suspects were gunned down in separate incidents in Rizal, Bulacan and Palawan  in the past two days.

Larry Lilang, 46, formerly of the Palawan police, was playing cards with two businessmen when an unidentified assailant shot him at close range in Barangay 2, Roxas town at around noon on Monday.

The gunman fled on a motorcycle.

Chief Superintendent Emmanuel Licup, Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan) police director, said Lilang was dismissed from the service on July 3, 2017 for his involvement in the illegal drug trade.

Rommel Bedrona, 30; Leonard Cons-tantino, 27, and his partner Margaret Diane Salazar, 21, and Dave Natalaray, 32, were having a drinking spree in Barangay Mambugan, Antipolo at around 11:30 p.m. also on Monday when motorcycle-riding men opened fire.

Natalaray died at the scene.  Salazar, Bedrona and Constantino were pronounced dead on arrival in a hospital.

Police said the victims were drug surrenderees and tagged in recent robberies in their area.

Probers are eyeing a double-cross between drug dealers as the motive for the killings.

In Rizal, a suspected leader of a robbery group, known only as Pusa, allegedly shot it out with anti-narcotics agents in a drug bust in Barangay San Juan, Taytay, Rizal.

In Bulacan, an alias Kaliwa shot police officers who posed as buyers of shabu in Barangay Taliptip, Bulakan town  at around 3:30 a.m. yesterday.

Sachets of shabu, marked money and the guns used by the suspects were recovered, police said.– Ed Amoroso, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Ramon Efren Lazaro