“Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?” – Anonymous

Personally, I don’t buy into the Iloilo City Police Office theory that claims retired Senior Police Officer 2 Ronald ‘Apple’ Alag may have been murdered because of a “turf war” between drug syndicates – it’s one of the angles police are looking into.

Since the early 1990s, Iloilo City has only seen two large-scale illegal drug groups operating in the city, the Odicta drug group and the Prevendido drug group. All other groups were either linked to the aforementioned groups or were “colorum” teams that lacked the means to sustain worthwhile operations.

The leaders of both groups, Melvin ‘Boyet’ Odicta, Sr. and Richard ‘Buang’ Prevendido have both already been “neutralized;” even Prevendido’s sister, Barangay Bakhaw Captain Remia Prevendido-Gregori of Iloilo City’s Mandurriao district, was killed earlier this year. With both groups making a lot of money, many of their couriers and associated knew each other – the two groups were not at wat with each other.

Engaging in “mafia-like” practices to “polish off the cookies” would defeat their purpose (and they weren’t the sophisticated and glamorous types to act as Godfather copycats). The Odicta group was “too big” to engage in a bloody rivalry with the “smaller” Prevendido group, which was considered “too inferior” to trouble the former.

Meanwhile, Police Regional Office-6 (PRO-6) has admitted remaining members of these groups, along with “new players,” are trying to revive the old syndicates but, due to the aggressive anti-illegal drug campaign being conducted by the PRO-6 and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, their plans have been stopped.

In addition, following the deaths of Odicta and Prevendido, it is believed their respective war chests and methods of killing have been subdued – if not crippled. This makes it inconceivable any “active” drug group would have the capability to violently exterminate individuals using professional killers, equipped with “military precision,” in broad daylight.

Turf war or another extrajudicial killing?/WDJ