A BUY-BUST resulted in the arrest of the alleged hitman of a drug personality at 11:57 p.m. on Monday, September 2, 2024, in Sitio Badjawan, Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City.
The suspect was identified as Mark Jedrick Alvarez alias MJ, 19, of Sitio San Pedro, Barangay Duljo Fatima, Cebu City.
He was thought to be accountable for the seven gunshot incidents that took place in barangays Mambaling and Duljo Fatima.
Taken from him during the buy-bust were 50 grams of alleged shabu with a standard drug price of P340,000 and a .45 pistol with four live rounds.
The anti-illegal drug operation was carried out by the Mambaling police led by station commander Major Efren Diaz Jr.
According to Chief Colonel Antonietto Cañete of the Cebu City Police Office, the seven gunshot incidents that occurred in the city have been deemed solved with Alvarez’s arrest.
Cañete said that they have already identified the person who gave Alvarez the order to kill someone over a drug debt in exchange for a payment.
Alvarez was linked to the shooting of Edward Abayan on June 17, 2024, in Sitio Micabaja, Barangay Duljo Fatima, and Juvanie Destacaminto on June 30, on C. Padilla Street, Duljo Fatima.
On August 18, he was accused of shooting dead live-in couple Saturnino Sericon Biscocho and Maribell Fernan Pedroza in Sitio Micabaja.
He was also charged with shooting Roldan Racal on August 20 at 3:48 a.m. in Sitio Lawis Alaska, Barangay Mambaling, along with two other friends, Rio Baring Siso and an unnamed guy.
Furthermore, on August 22 at 3:40 a.m., Gilbert Salcedo Gelbolingo was fatally shot allegedly by Alvarez in Sitio Kakahuyan, Barangay Mambaling.
Around 7 p.m. on the same day, a certain Julieta Estrera was also shot in Sitio Badjawan, Mambaling, with Alvarez being tagged as the gunman.
On August 30, Alvarez and his cohorts Mark Jedric Alvarez and John Lloyd Eyas Pagobo alias Bunso were also identified as the suspects in shooting Dexter Cuizon in Sitio San Juan Seawall, Barangay Mambaling.
But during police interrogation, Alvarez only admitted five of the seven shooting cases, saying the other two were committed by his associates who had been apprehended before him.
Prior to Alvarez’s arrest, a minor hitman and a man named Roly from Sitio Badjawan were also arrested by the Mambaling Police Station last week.
According to reports, the mastermind behind Roly, who was formerly held at the Cebu City Jail until being released on January 25, 2024, is the same person who gave Alvarez the order to liquidate anybody who had unpaid drug debts. (AYB, TPT)
