By Anthony Giron CAMP GEN. PANTALEON GARCIA, IMUS, Cavite – Three drug suspects were killed Wednesday night when they resisted arrest by firing their guns at the police in separate operations in Cavite, the Police Provincial Office (PPO) reported on Thursday, March 5. The three deaths in Bacoor and General Trias brought to 16 those killed in encounters with the police in relation to illegal drugs activities in the province's lowland and upland districts. Lieutenant Colonel Vicente Saspa Cabatingan, Bacoor police chief, identified the fatalities in his jurisdiction as Sony Telespuro, a resident of Pechayan-Nazareth Compound, Barangay Molino III, Bacoor; and Michael Angelo Eguin. In a report, Cabatingan said that Telespuro and Eguin fired their guns at a joint police team in a search operation at 9:07 p.m. Wednesday in the crowded Pechayan-Nazareth Compound. The team was forced to return fire and gun down the suspects. No one was reported hit by bullets on the police side. Both Telespuro and Eguin died on the spot from bullet wounds they sustained in the exchange of gunfire. Recovered at the encounter scene were the suspects' .9mm cal. and.45 cal. pistols. During the search, police found shabu paraphernalia, including unsealed plastic sachets, an aluminium foil and other materials, an improvised shotgun and ammunition for different caliber firearms. The team composed of Bacoor Drug Enforcement Unit/Intelligence officers and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-Cavite agents conducted the operation after securing a search warrant for Telespuro from Sta, Cruz, Laguna, Regional Trial Court Judge Cynthia R, Mariño-Ricablanca. Lieutenant Colonel Marlo Nillo Solero, General Trias police chief, also reported that a suspected drug pusher died in an encounter in his jurisdiction at 11 p.m. Wednesday. Solero identified the fatality as Joseph Veluz Nocuenca, 43. Nocuenco opted to shoot it out with a police team when he sensed that the shabu buyer he had dealt with was an officer, The suspect suffered gunshot wounds in the firefight and died on the spot. Recovered at the scene were a .45 cal. pistol with a bullet loaded in its chamber and a magazine loaded with two bullets and from the suspect a brown leather bag containing P1,060 cash, including the P500 buy bust money, and a coin purse with 13 small sachets containing "shabu." A report obtained from the Cavite PPO showed that 16 drug suspects have reportedly died in encounters with police in the province in the first two months and four days of the year. All the suspects have fired their guns in resistance, the PPO said. Molino and other barangays (villages) in Bacoor and the Tropical Village Pabahay 2000 housing project and other places in General Trias are being watched by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Cavite-PPO due to the reported rampant illegal drug sale/transactions in the areas. The PPO reported that of the 73 barangays in Bacoor, only eight have been declared drug-cleared so far. In General Trias, of the 33 barangays in the turf, only five are drug-cleared.