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BY BOY RYAN ZABAL
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Monday, May 22, 2017
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KALIBO, Aklan – Gerry Tejada was selling pakwan (watermelon) on Toting Reyes Street in Barangay Andagao when several men asked him how much a kilo is worth.
Without hesitation, the 53-year-old vendor replied, “Beinte (Twenty pesos).” The men then put money in the right-side pocket of his jacket.
The next thing he knew, the men — who turned out to be plainclothes policemen — were handcuffing him. They said they were arresting him for selling prohibited drugs.
His arrest surprised Tejada. “I’m not using drugs,” the resident of Barangay Jalas, New Washington said in the dialect. “I was told I was in the watch list of drug personalities because I was summoned in our town.”
Tejada’s wife was surprised, too. “He drinks and smokes cigarettes, but he was not using illegal drugs,” the wife said.
Tejada said his wife was selling pakwan with him. “She was looking for buyers. I was sitting on my tricycle waiting for a call from my wife when the policemen came.”
But his narrative — and denials — run contrary to what the police said.
“He (Tejada) has been engaged in the drug trade for a while now,” said Chief Inspector Frensy Andrade, leader of the Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit (PDEU) that arrested the suspect. “He gets his supply from Capiz and sells them in Kalibo, Numancia and New Washington.”
Police called Tejada a “Level 1 high-value target.”
They hauled him to the lockup cell of the Kalibo police station after the buy-bust operation on Friday, May 19.
Tejada is now facing charges for violation of Section 5 of Republic Act 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Police said Tejada sold a plastic pack of suspected shabu to undercover officers for P1,000 around 9 a.m.
Operatives from the Kalibo police Special DEU and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Region 6 helped in the operation. (With Aklan Forum Journal/PN)
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