Pubdate: Fri, 15 Jul 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/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/areas/Philippines

'PUSHER' PLAYING CARDS GUNNED DOWN

A suspected big-time drug pusher, whom police said belonged to the
level of slain suspects Joel "Tongol" Nodalo and Hector "Boy Yaya"
Salcedo in the illegal drugs trade, was gunned down shortly before
noon yesterday on Alviola St., Villagonzalo Dos, Barangay Tejero, Cebu
City.

Victor del Mar, 61, died of a single gunshot wound in the head after a
lone gunman shot him at close range while he was playing "tong-its," a
card betting game, inside a neighbor's house.

No one among del Mar's playmates recognized the gunman, who they said
was wearing a ball cap to hide his face.

SPO2 Alex Dacua, team leader of the responding homicide investigators,
said that while they admit that del Mar was killed vigilante-style,
they are considering a drug-related motive in the killing.

Del Mar was the 68th suspected criminal to fall since the killings
started last Dec. 22.

Del Mar's common-law-wife Linda Quijardo, 47, confirmed that the
victim once engaged in selling shabu but recently stopped.

Quijardo admitted that she and del Mar spent time in the Bagong Buhay
Rehabilitation Center in Cebu City and in the National Bilibid Prisons
in Muntinlupa City for drug-related cases.

Firecracker

Celedonio Condor, 72, who was sitting beside del Mar said he first
mistook the burst of gunfire as that of a firecracker explosion and
even remarked why his neighbors threw the firecracker near him.

Condor, however, then noticed that blood was oozing from del Mar's
head.

Condor and another playmate Jonathan Empenado, a newsboy, said they
would have wanted to run after the gunman but thought twice out of
fear that the gunman might shoot them.

Responding operatives of the Crime Suppression Unit and homicide
investigators recovered one empty shell of a .45 pistol.

Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau Chief Pablo Labra II
said that based on the order of battle of people involved in the
illegal drug trade, del Mar was a "big-time drug pusher" in the
category where Nodalo and Salcedo belonged.

Nodalo and his alleged right-hand man, Salcedo, were both killed
vigilante-style. Nodalo was shot 14 times by a lone gunman in
Buenavista, Bohol last June 23, while Salcedo was also shot repeatedly
by two men on Alviola St., Cebu City last Feb. 22.

Jail Time

Records of del Mar from the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center showed
he was jailed twice, both for violation of Republic Act 6425, the old
anti-illegal drugs law.

He was first committed to the city jail on Aug. 29, 1995 but was
released on Sept. 18 that year on condition of "release on
recognizance" to lawyer Eduardo Gabriel Jr.

He was sent back to the city jail on Oct. 30, 1996.

On Aug. 29, 1998, del Mar was transferred to the National Bilibid
Prisons.

Quijardo said del Mar was released from the National Bilibid Prisons
in late 1998 and did not resume his illegal drug activity.

Sun.Star Cebu records showed that del Mar was arrested in a police
buy-bust operation on Aug. 26, 2001 in Villagonzalo Dos.

Operatives from the Punta Princesa Police Station, however, found it
hard to arrest del Mar because several residents and bystanders would
mob the police apparently to prevent the suspect's arrest.
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