Dagupan "Death Squad" Fails to Kill Notorious Criminal

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY - Is there a death squad in this city that kills notorious criminals who sell illegal drugs or rob innocent defenseless people?

NOTORIOUS ROBBER. Rewel S. Bugayong
Alias "Kamote" is a notorious po-
lice character in Dagupan City. He is sus-
pected to be responsible for a series of mug-
ging and house looting in the city.

A resident, who asked anonymity, in the ghetto of Barangay Amado Tapuac here believes there was a vigilante group that roams around after Rewel S. Bugayong alias Kamote was shot recently in a wake in the village by an unidentifed assailant.

Bugayong, a notorious robber whose mugging and house looting activities have been a headache among village officials and police for years, has been confined in the intensive care unit with a bullet ensconced at his jaw at the government owned Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC) in this city after alleged members of a death squad attempted to kill him in the night of May 20.

The same resident said he suspected that the hit man is part of a group that has been behind the series of extra judicial killings of illegal drug pushers and robbers whose hog tied bodies pumped with bullets or stabbed wounds have been dumped like garbage on the national highways here.

The source said one of the two assassins’ surreptitiously went behind Bugayong and shoot him three times but only one of the bullets hit him on the nape that ricocheted to his jaw.

When asked by this paper about the details of the incidents, Superintendent Christopher Abrahano said that victim sustained one gunshot wound on his head and was rushed immediately to R1MC in Arellano Street.

“Unidentified suspect ran away on foot to still unknown direction. Victim is still in critical condition. Motive of the incident is still unknown,” he said.

 Abrahano said that records in his office showed that Bugayong was charged of robbery in February 20 this year.

According to the same resident a placard was left by the hit man near the crime scene with a bold statement that people should not emulate his malfeasances.

“Kamote was playing a card game tong-it with friends. He was seated in a place where he saw all people who entered the area near the wake that was located in a vacant lot. We did not know that the two assassins who sported a baseball cap were already seated in the chairs nearby,” he stressed in Filipino.

When asked if a vigilante group was responsible for the frustrated murder of Kamote, Abrahano vigorously denied it.

DEATH SQUAD?:  Killers riding in tandem
looking for their prey.

“I will not allow anybody in the city to put the law in their own hands,” he said.

The source said that after the hit man cocked and fired three bullets from his stainless handgun at the suspect, bettors and mourners scampered for safety to different directions.

“Pero sumigaw ang isang squatter na “jackpot” at iyong ibang kasamahan niya kanya-kanya dampot na lang sila ng mga perang naiwan sa lamesa”.

He said Bugayong touched his neck, fell face first on the gambling table, then jumped at the ground and crawled at the direction of the coffin. “Naibigay pa niya ang pera niya na halagang P60,000 na nakabalot sa plastic sa isang kasama niya na lasing”.

One of the gunmen fired upward some shots to discourage anyone who would avenge the victim as they were exiting calmly by foot in a narrow pathway to the city road.
"Any toughie here in Amado come out!" one of them shouted as they egress to the city road where some companions in motorbikes waited.

“The intention by the vigilante group to silence him did not go in vain as he would be paralyzed and could no longer continue his nefarious trade, “the same source said.

An update from the police said that Kamote has been transferred from R1MC to an unknown hospital. His relatives have been heard looking for an orthopedic surgeon to extract the bullet embedded in his jaw.

The ghetto in this barangay, just like Sitio Aling and the Muslim area in Barangay Bonu-an Gueset, is known as not only as hub of robbers but illegal drug pushers.

Reports said even foreigners like African nationals who are college students in this city have been entering the area to buy illegal drugs like shabu (methamphetamine) and marijuana.

“Mabuti na ngang pinagpapatay na ng mga vigilante iyan, pati kami dito nadadamay sa mga masamang gawa-in nila,” the resident declared.

He said the reason why Bugayong could not be apprehended by policemen or hired hands because some of the people in the area sympathized with him.

Kamote is known as the Robin Hood in the squatter area. Every time he robbed a person or looted a house, he shared some of the proceeds through cash or food with the poor in the area.
"His father, a thief, was killed years ago," a tricycle driver in the place told this blogger.
Before he was shot, a house in the village was looted in the morning with hundred of thousands of pesos worth of materials and cash stashed.