Cop killed in botched Surigao City anti-narcotics operation

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May 8, 2026 | 6:49pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A shabu peddler killed a policeman with his own service pistol that he reportedly grabbed from him and wounded another after a tradeoff in Barangay Cagniog in Surigao City late Wednesday, May 6.

Senior officials of the Police Regional Office 13 and the Surigao City Police Station told reporters on Friday that the fatality, Staff Sgt. Charito Gepulla was an operative of the Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit of the Surigao del Norte Provincial Police Office.

The incident left Gepulla’s companion, Patrolman John Paul Lesmoras, wounded. He is now confined to a hospital.

Their attacker, a certain Ronron Maturan, had escaped and is now the subject of an extensive manhunt by units of PRO 13.

Radio reports on Friday stated that Maturan managed to grab the pistol of Gepulla and opened fire after selling shabu to him and his companions during an entrapment operation in Sitio Cayutan in Barangay Cagniog in Surigao City on Wednesday night.

The entrapment operation turned haywire when Maturan, known for his large-scale peddling of shabu and marijuana, sensed that he had sold his illegal merchandise to non-uniformed policemen. 

Maturan also shot and wounded Lesmoras before he ran away.

Brig. Gen. Mariano Magistrado IV, director of the Police Regional Office 13, had assured his support for the medication of the wounded Lesmoras whom he visited on Thursday at the hospital where he is undergoing treatment.

Local executives in Surigao City are helping locate Maturan, according to officials of PRO 13 and members of the multi-sector Regional Peace and Order Council 13.

They have reportedly assured to help file criminal charges, in absentia, against Maturan.