Drug pusher killed in shootout with police in Cebu City

CEBU CITY – A suspected drug pusher was killed while his companion escaped during a buy-bust operation inside a Chinese cemetery in Barangay Carreta here past midnight Friday, June 17.

Police identified the fatality as Mark Ronald Matig-a. His alleged accomplice, June Tuñacao, was able to flee, police said.

Police Lt. Col. Lymel Pasquin, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP)-Region 7 (Central Visayas) Drug Enforcement Special Operations Unit, said the suspects sensed the presence of the police after selling a pack of shabu to a poseur-buyer.

The suspects drew their firearms and fired at the poseur-buyer, triggering a shootout. The poseur-buyer was hit in the chest but the bulletproof vest he was wearing saved him.

Matig-a sustained bullet wounds and died on the spot while his companion was able to escape.

Police recovered a KG9 rifle owned by the slain suspect together with several packs of suspected shabu in the encounter site valued at P20.4 million.

Follow-up operations will be conducted to arrest Matig-a’s cohort, said Pasquin, who added that they are checking reports that Tuñacao is a hitman of a drug lord.