BY RUBY SILUBRICO and DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
ILOILO City – The huge volume of shabu – three kilos valued at P20.4 million – intercepted at the BREDCO Port in Bacolod City on Monday indicated there’s a big drug syndicate operating in that city and Negros Occidental, according to Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Region 6 director Alex Tablate.
“Imagine if hindi nahuli. Ilang tao ang masisira dahil sa droga na ‘yan,” said Tablate.
The two men arrested following the shabu confiscation are currently being investigated. Tablate said the main objective is to identify the big drug trafficking players.
He previously said PDEA-6 was monitoring five drug groups in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental.
Tablate believed the shabu was “from Luzon area” and was transported to Bacolod City for “safekeeping” until it was “right to distribute to high-value individuals”
“Sa laki ng halaga ng shabu, hindi pwede ma-delay ang pag-transport. Dapat maitago muna ‘yan while waiting ng kanilang grupo. Mabuti na lang nasakote sila,” Tablate said.
He believed interception disrupted drug trafficking operations in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental, if not in the whole region.
“Malaki ang impact nito sa drug proliferation sa Western Visayas,” said Tablate.
The was the biggest shabu haul so far this year in the region, and the second big interception in less than two weeks.
Just this Jan. 12, shabu valued at P10.2 million was confiscated in Barangay Guadalupe, San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.
Where did the shabu come from?
The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOCPPO) does not believe the shabu was manufactured in the province or within Western Visayas.
It may have originated from another region, according to Police Colonel Leo Pamittan, acting police director of Negros Occidental.
It may have been smuggled into the province via San Carlos City’s porous coastline, he said.
It was unclear as this was being written if there’s any link as between the two shabu hauls, specifically their origins.
In Monday’s successful interception carried out by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) – Negros Occidental in coordination with PDEA, the two arrested suspects were both residents of Bacolod City – Aslanie Desomangcop Usman of Lopez Jaena Street in the city’s Barangay 31; and Mohammad Ambulo, a resident of Villa Angela Subdivision in Barangay Villamonte.
Both originated from Metro Manila and rode a vessel in Batangas heading to Caticlan (Malay, Aklan).
They traveled by land to Dumangas, Iloilo.
In the San Carlos City shabu seizure by the NOCPPO and that city’s police force, the arrested suspect was Joel Rizardo, 24, of Greenville Bato, Barangay Rizal, Bacolod City – a high-value drug suspect.
Regarding Monday’s operation, PCG-Negros Occidental yesterday said they were already aware that a shabu shipment was bound for Bacolod City.
Station commander and deputy commander for Coast Guard District Western Visayas Captain Ludovico Librilla said the illegal drug was already detected while the suspects were still aboard the roll-on/roll-off vessel at the Dumangas Port in Dumangas, Iloilo.
But it was decided that the interception would be made instead at the BREDCO Port in Bacolod City, with PDEA also called in to deploy their own K-9 units.
For his part, NOCPPO spokesperson Police Lieutenant Abegael Donasco said they have yet to receive any information as to where the illegal drug shipment was ultimately bound.
Earlier, Police Captain Paul Vincent Pendon of the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) Station 2 said the shabu was believed to be either sold off or distributed to other drug suspects both in the province and in the city itself./PN