BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – Three murders, both in broad daylight, public and obviously brutal, marked two quarantine phases here, with two happening during the downgraded general quarantine period.
One of the victims had been linked to illegal drugs while police are still probing the two others.
Police described all three – Roland Tan, Manuel Huelar and Gerald Cuadra as “businessmen.”
Tan, the latest victim, died upon arriving at the hospital yesterday, 21 May 2020 at 5:27pm, about half an hour after he was shot in front of his office at Narra Avenue at the Shopping Commercial Complex, an old part of this highly-urbanized city.
Six days ago before Tan’s murder, Gerald Cuadra, son of convicted druglord Jose Kim, was also shot dead less than a kilometer away in front of the hospital where Tan died yesterday.
Cuadra had just gone out of a family restaurant when two armed men pumped seven bullets on him. (Read: Son of convicted druglord shot dead on first day of downscaled quarantine)
He died on the spot and never even made it across to the emergency room.
Both were killed during the city government’s GCQ downgrade.
On April 16, during the enhanced quarantine, former village chief and controversial cager Manuel Huelar was also shot dead less than a kilometer south from where Tan was killed.
Huelar was nabbed in 2016 for drug-related charges and also implicated several provincial officials in the illicit drug trade in 2018. (Read: Controversial ex-cager shot dead in broad daylight amid COVID scare)
