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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Friday, October 6, 2017
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ILOILO – Drug suspects detained at the Iloilo District Jail (IDJ) in Barangay Nanga, Pototan town continue their clandestine operations using cell phones, according to the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO).
To disrupt these illegal transactions, Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, IPPO director, proposed the installation of signal jammers at the prison facility.
“Meron pa ring transactions. Ang mga nandoon ay high-profile inmates involved in the illegal drug trade,” Tayaba told officers and members of the Iloilo Peace and Order Council during a meeting at the provincial capitol.
These drug deals were not only provincial but regional in scope, he added.
Provincial Administrator Raul Banias welcomed the proposed signal jamming but stressed this needed a considerable budget.
Perhaps around P50 million, he said, citing the signal jammers purchased for the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinpula City, Metro Manila.
“Tan-awon ta. Kun gamay man lang nga area basi bulubarato,” said Banias.
Tayaba asked council members to pass a resolution urging local government units to support IPPO’s plan.
He cited the Oct. 1 unannounced inspection at the IDJ that yielded eight sachets of shabu.
The sachets were found in cell No. 51 where 50-year-old drug suspect Marque “Boboy” Acap Sr. was detained.
The inspection was led by IDJ’s new warden, Superintendent Jhon Montero.
But Acap was not the sole occupant of the cell; there were other inmates.
At the time of his arrest last year, Acap was classified a high-value drug target of the police.
Among the several suspected high-value drug personalities detained at the IDJ were Jesus “Jing-jing” Espinosa of Iloilo City, Ednie Jimena (nephew of slain drug lord Richard Prevendido) and Rolando “Apa” Torpio.
“We work in tandem with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology to address the problem at the IDJ,” said Tayaba.
The former director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Region 6, Atty. Gil Pabilona, previously said jails appeared to be the “weakest link” in the war against illegal drugs.
From their cells, detained drug personalities continued to direct the operation of their minions outside, he revealed.
“The illegal drugs supply in Iloilo will not stop unless those people inside the jail will stop directing their people outside what to do,” stressed Pabilona in April this year.
Lowly drug suspects PDEA operatives arrested usually pointed to these detained drug personalities as the ones instructing them where to get the supplies, said Pabilona./PN
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