Sino drug suspect killed?

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — Did he commit suicide or was he killed?

This question on the death of alleged drug dealer Yang Han Yin, 22, alias Hanson Lo Young, inside the office here of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) last Sunday, has cropped up.

This, as a SOCO (scene of the crime operation) team of the Central Luzon police, which autopsied Yang’s body at the Jose B. Lingad Memorial Hospital in the City of San Fernando, claimed that the wound in the suspect’s throat appeared not to have been self-inflicted.

Earlier, PDEA agents here claimed that Yang asked to go to the comfort room while being interrogated last Sunday, and once there, slashed his throat with a shard of glass from a window jalousie.

But the SOCO team, headed by Inspector Cresencio de Asis, now suspects there was foul play, noting that the shard of glass Yang supposedly used in killing himself was missing.

PDEA director-general Anselmo Avenido said he has coordinated with Chief Superintendent Oscar Calderon, Central Luzon police director, for an impartial investigation into Yang’s death.

Calderon, in turn, has requested the regional office of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), under Superintendent Christopher Laxa, to lead the probe.

"Para mawala ang duda, nag-usap na kami ni Col. Calderon na pahahawakan na namin yung investigation sa CIDG regional office (To remove any doubts, Col. Calderon and I have agreed to allow the CIDG regional office to handle the probe)," Avenido said.

Avenido claimed in a radio interview that Yang had suicidal tendencies as evidenced by the slash marks on his body.

The PDEA said Yang was arrested last March 8 at the parking lot of IS Pavilion in Meycauayan, Bulacan. At least 500 grams of shabu were reportedly seized from him.

Yang was tagged as the No. 3 drug dealer in the country.