Ex-barangay chief in Duterte’s drug list shot dead in Cagayan

CAGAYAN, Philippines – A former barangay official who was in the government’s drug list was shot dead in Aparri in this province on Friday, June 16, the town police chief said.

Julio Bong Decierto, former chairman of Barangay San Antonio, was gunned down by 3 unidentified gunmen around 4 pm on Friday, Chief Inspector Pepito Mendoza Jr told Rappler in a phone interview on Saturday, June 17.

Decierto was a former president of the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) and an ex-officio councilor.

Police reports said the gunmen barged into Decierto’s house and shot him several times. Investigators recovered 4 bullet shells of an M16 rifle and one bullet shell of a 9mm pistol.

Mendoza said Decierto is on President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug list and was among those who surrendered to police in the first wave of the police’s Oplan Tokhang to clear his name.

“Alam naman nating lahat, at ng mga tao dito na dati siyang involved sa illegal drug trade (Everyone here knows that he was involved in the illegal drug trade),” the Aparri police chief told Rappler.

Mendoza said, however, that police are not singling out the illegal drug angle in the probe.

He said they are also looking into his previous business-related altercations and a love triangle as possible motives of the killing.

In an 1999 en banc decision of the Supreme Court on a gross misconduct case involving Decierto’s uncle, Judge Segundo Catral, Decierto was described as a “notorious character” in Aparri.

In thet SC decision, Catral was found guilty of “acting improperly” on the arrest warrants for Decierto’s aides in illegal numbers game operations. – Rappler.com