By CALVIN CORDOVA and JUAN CARLO DE VELA
CEBU CITY – A woman said she threw herself on the cliff to escape being shot and passed out while hiding from the armed men responsible for the death of five men yesterday in Barangay Malubog.
The woman, identified as Charmaine Poran, 35, emerged from the grasses at 9 a.m., six hours after the shooting, and ran toward the gathering crowd that included policemen investigating the incident.
In between sobs, Poran narrated that she was picked up by unidentified men wearing black shirts in Barangay Mambaling Wednesday night and brought to a warehouse where she and other men were blindfolded.
Poran said they were brought inside a van that took them to Malubog, a mountainous barangay.
She claimed that the armed men took them out and started firing. She said she tried to play dead, but one of the armed men found this out and ordered her to stand.
Poran said she grabbed the opportunity to jump off the cliff and ran aimlessly. She said she dug a hole where she hid until she lost consciousness.
The woman’s story was corroborated by Antonio Belande, a 35-year-old habal-habal driver, who claimed that he was with the victims.
In a radio interview, Belande said they were picked up in Barangay Banawa, Cebu City and were brought to Malubog.
He said they were blindfolded and hogtied while inside the van.
Belande said that he suspected that the armed men were policemen because they were mentioning names of certain police officials while they were inside the van.
One of the five fatalities was identified as Christopher Tangag.
Three of the dead were found in a Nissan Urvan where packs of suspected shabu were found. Found outside the bullet-riddled van with license plate GFF 192 were the bodies of two men.
The men were found slumped near two motorcycles. Empty shells of undetermined firearms were found in the area.
Poran, who bore cuts and scratches in her arms and legs, was brought to the Malubog Barangay Hall where she was met by Chief Supt. Debold Sinas, chief of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO7).
Belande and Boran were brought to the hospital.
After Belande’s radio interview, Sinas denied police involvement in the shooting.
“These are spur-of-the-moment statements. I was able to listen to the interview and he never categorically said that their attackers were police,” said Sinas.
“I met them because it is part of our duty to protect them. I did not force them to go with us. I told them we will not interfere or pressure them. My point was that, if they are going to make some statements, it has to be accurate,” added Sinas.
Senior Supt. Royina Garma, chief of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said the incident is still under investigation.
“Our information is too little for us to make a conclusion,” said Garma.
Meanwhile, a series of police operations dubbed as “One Time, Big Time” saw the police served a total of 106 search warrants in the cities of Cebu, Talisay, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu City.
As of 11:30 a.m. yesterday, 82 search warrants had been served.
Sinas said 11 search warrants were served in Barangay Tangke, Talisay City where six persons were killed.
Three of the fatalities were in Cebu City.
“Those who got killed resisted arrests. Our troops were forced to defend themselves. If suspects don’t resist, they will not be harmed. That is our commitment,” said Sinas.
Sinas said they are withholding the names of the fatalities pending validations.
During the implementation of the simultaneous police operations which started past midnight, 76 persons were arrested for illegal drugs, six for firearms and 44 during buy-bust operations.
The operations also yielded 27 assorted firearms.
“The figures will increase once we received the complete report of the serving of the warrants,” said Sinas.
Operatives of CCPO seized illegal drugs worth at least P3 million in their own police operations.
“The operation focused on areas considered as hot spots like barangays Pasil and Ermita,” said Garma.
Police operations in Lapu-Lapu also led to the confiscation of at least 400 illegally refilled butane canisters, Sinas said.
Aside from the police, the operations were also participated by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and Coast Guard-Cebu Station.
“As you can see, the operations were very successful because other law enforcement agencies participated. The PDEA and Coast Guard, for example, lent us their drug-sniffing dogs that’s why we were able to seize large amount of illegal drugs,” Sinas said.
Lawyer Wardley Getalla, chief of PDEA Central Visayas, lauded the PRO 7 for tapping the PDEA 7 in the operations.
