VIGILANTE KILLING CONTINUES IN GENERAL SANTOS CITY

GENERAL SANTOS CITY - Vigilante killing of suspected drug traffickers
continues in this bustling seaport city as two motorcycle-riding gunmen
shot dead the other day the 12th suspect.

Police identified the latest fatality as Rolando de las Marias, a suspected
drug pusher. He was believed felled by bullets fired by members of a
vigilante group out to put an end to the drugs menace in this city.

Authorities have the difficulty in identifying the assailants of Delas
Marias because they covered their faces with safety helmets.

Although policemen and anti-narcotics agents have busted drug syndicates
here with the arrest of known "drug lords" and traffickers, the police
admitted that the vigilante killings by civilians have boosted the
government's anti-drugs campaign.

Supt. Efren Alcuizar, 12th Regional Anti-Narcotics Unit (RANU) chief,
identified the two arrested big fish as Satar Datumanong, an employe of
Mindanao State University and a purok chairman in outskirt barangay Fatima,
this city, and Rushdi Maningcara, MSU driver.

Maningcara's wife and son were also nabbed in the "buy-bust" operation.
Seized from Datumanong were 150 grams of "shabu" packed in 30 "sacks" with
each sack weighing five grams.

Earlier, composite forces of Regional Anti-Narcotics Unit (RANU) and
General Santos City Police Office busted the "Taliban Gang" in a raid at
its den in barangay Buayan, this city, capturing 21 gang members, including
two girls, one of whom was reportedly caught engaging in sex.

No group has claimed responsibility for the vigilante killings, but
broadcast journalists here have called it a "drugs death squad."

In Davao City, the vigilante group responsible for the killing of many
suspected drugs pusher is called by the media Davao Death Squad.

Although the victims were all drug suspects, Alcuizar said, "their
execution is against the law."

He said that even the police and military are bound to adhere to the law or
at least the rules of engagement.