At least eight people were killed in separate incidents in Las Piñas and Cavite yesterday, some of them on the “drug watch list.”
The killings in Cavite took place in the cities of Bacoor, General Alvarez, and Rosario.
Rosendo Bulaon, 50 years old, whose name was included in the drugs watch list, was killed in a computer shop.
He was on his was to buy something to drink when he was shot by two men on a motorcycle.
In General Mariano Alvarez town, Ernest and Rona Jacob, a couple who escaped from the armed conflict in Marawi City, were shot and killed by unknown assailants.
A few kilometers away in Las Piñas City, Rachel Fajardo, 32 years old, was shot in broad daylight by armed men on a motorcycle. According to a report in Inquirer.net, Fajardo was driving a Toyota Vios and was stuck in traffic when she was shot and killed. Authorities are still investigating the motive behind the murder.
The spate of vigilante killings in southern Metro Manila and Cavite come after two police operations last week, one in Manila and the other in Bulacan province, left 32 people dead.
Police officials have yet to issue a statement on the incidents.
Human rights groups say that about 12,000 people have been killed by armed vigilantes or in anti-drug operations, linked to President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. Although this is a figure that the government publicly disputes.
Despite the fiery debates over extrajudicial killings, sparked by the CCTV footage of the killing of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos, Duterte has no plans of putting an end to the bloody campaign.
“No I can’t back out,” Duterte told reporters on Monday. “Who is in the best position to fight drugs?” he said.
with reports from ABS-CBN News
