ILOILO City – This 2020 the Philippine National Police in Western Visayas aims to get the 105 remaining high-value drug targets it failed to neutralize in 2019. Included in these targets are elected public officials serving as drug protectors.
The No. 1 target remains to be Ernesto Bolivar, a resident of Barangay Guinacas, Pototan, Iloilo who has been in hiding since 2017.
Police units across the region are hunting him down, said Police Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6).
Of the 105 drug targets, 50 are in Negros Occidental, 32 in Bacolod City, 11 in Iloilo province, four in Capiz, three each in Antique and Iloilo City, and one each in Guimaras and in Aklan.
It is better for these targets to surrender peacefully than resist the arresting policemen and die, said Philippine National Police acting director Police Lieutenant General Archie Francisco Gamboa during a visit to the PRO-6 on Christmas Eve.
The goal, said Gamboa, is to arrest and jail the drug traffickers.
How effective the antidrug campaign is will be part of the evaluation on regional police directors and other police officials, said Gamboa.
Certainly, he said, a lackluster performance would cost a police official his post.
Police data obtain by Panay News showed that in 2019 a total of 922 high-value drug targets in Western Visayas were arrested, 100 could no longer be located, 30 were killed in police operations, and 444 voluntarily surrendered.
Of the 30 drug suspects killed in police operations, Iloilo City had the most number at nine, followed by Iloilo province (eight), Bacolod City (five), Negros Occidental (four), Antique (two) and one each in Antique and Capiz.
For the 2020 targets, Malong did not discount the possibility that the number (150) could still change.
“Basi may madugang or may mabuhin,” said Malong.
According to Gamboa, he was satisfied of the PRO-6’s performance under the leadership of Police Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan.
PRO-6 was rated No. 6 among the country’s regional police offices from January to September 2019.
“With the cooperation of all policemen, the community and media, there’s no reason why we could not improve our rating,” Pamuspusan said.
But will the PRO-6 under Pamuspusan finally succeed in arresting top drug suspect Bolivar?
Three PRO-6 directors before Pamuspusan tried but all failed to find Bolivar, 41, who became the region’s top drug target after the death in September 2017 of drug lord Richard Prevendido. They were Police Brigadier Generals Cesar Hawthorne Binag, Jose Gentiles and John Bulalacao.
Bolivar’s arrest and the campaign against illegal drugs remains a PRO-6 priority, according to Pamuspusan.
“The goal is to sustain the gains of the PRO-6 in the revitalized campaign against illegal drugs, targeting the remaining drug personalities and groups in Panay and Negros islands, and these include Bolivar,” said Malong.
Bolivar was believed to be a minion of Prevendido and stepped up drug trafficking activities after his boss died in a shootout with policemen on Sept. 1, 2017 in Barangay Balabago, Jaro district here.
To avoid detection, sources said, Bolivar has tapped the services of personalities whom the police are not familiar with.
Sources further told Panay News Bolivar has lots of money to buy protection from policemen and even businessmen.
Bolivar has a pending arrest warrant for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Although he managed to escape from policemen trying to entrap him in a buy-bust operation at his house in Barangay Guinacas, Pototan on Nov. 9, 2016, he was charged.
Malong said they were verifying reports about the alleged protectors of Bolivar.
The Bolivar drug group operates mainly in central and northern Iloilo province and parts of nearby Capiz. It is also into robbery and gun-for-hire services, according to the PRO-6’s Regional Drug Enforcement Unit.
The provincial government of Iloilo is dangling a P500,000 monetary reward to whoever could give information leading to the arrest of Bolivar./PN
