EIGHT men accused of being drug pushers died on Sunday morning in Manila, five of them gunned down as they reportedly engaged a police team which conducted a buy-bust operation in Quiapo’s notorious “Cambodia Alley” on Arlegui Street.

Described as one of the city’s most dangerous areas because of rampant drug dealing and use, the narrow alley which was guarded by a metal gate was home to scores of shanties that housed cramped rooms, according to the police.

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Within these rooms, there were cubicles where people could buy and use “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride), according to case investigator PO2 Marlon San Pedro of the Manila Police District (MPD) homicide section.

Around 6 a.m. on Sunday, five men in one shanty were killed as they supposedly shot it out with members of the MPD Station 3.

4 in bed, 5th on the floor

The fatalities were found in separate cubicles, four of them lying on makeshift beds while the fifth was sprawled on the floor. Most of them had been shot in the chest.

Their identities were not immediately known despite the fact that in buy-bust operations, law enforcers are expected to monitor their targets beforehand and at the very least, know their aliases.

At 4 p.m., only three have been identified by the MPD Station 3 which led the operation. Its report forwarded to the MPD homicide section gave their names as Hassim Taruyaw, Renato Diaz and Ronald Acebedo.

An hour later, the fourth suspect was identified as Saiden Lalang by his aunt. “I don’t know if he was into illegal drug trade but he was a police volunteer,” Nor-Mhia Lalang, 41, told the Inquirer.

She said that her nephew had worked as a security guard. According to her, he was a kind man but acknowledged that he may have fallen in with the wrong type of people.

The five men yielded four firearms: two .22-cal., a .38-cal. and a .45-cal.

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The Inquirer talked to MPD Station 3 police chief Supt. Santiago Pascual to get more information about the fatalities but was told to wait for the report of Chief Insp. Michael Garcia, the Barbosa police precinct chief who led the operation.

Fatalities 6,7 and 8

Also killed in another buy-bust operation were Alexander Cuyugan, 41, and Jeje Reyes, both alleged drug dealers. They died after they reportedly opened fire on PO1 Menz Kimwell Estaban of the Abad Santos police station in Tondo.

The drug deal between Esteban and the suspects happened at 1:30 a.m. on Pilar Street. The pair yielded 10 sachets of suspected shabu and a .38-cal. revolver.

On the other hand, Ryan Eder, 29, died in yet another drug bust inside his house on Sagrada Familia Street, San Andres Bukid. Found in his possession were a .38-cal. gun and seven sachets of suspected shabu.

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