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[av_heading heading=’DRUGS MOVE THRU RORO’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY RUBY P. SILUIBRICO
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January 31, 2018
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ILOILO City – The seizure of P18-million worth of shabu in Dumangas, Iloilo has shown that the municipality’s seaport remains a transshipment point of illegal drugs.
Prior to their arrest, suspects Alberto Pinaga and Maebelle Belmonte twice used the port – last December 2017 and early this month – to transport shabu to Negros Occidental, according to Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, director of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO).
What happened to Task Force Puerto that the local government of Dumangas formed to bolster the porous security at the port in Barangay Sapao?
The interagency task force was launched in Nov. 25, 2015 after more than a year of planning. Seven months after, in June 2016, five Belgian Malinois dogs trained to detect illegal drugs and explosives were posted at the seaport.
The task force was a brainchild of then Dumangas mayor Rolando Distura. The current mayor is Ronaldo Golez.
“We hope the next administration would sustain this project,” Distura told Panay News in June 2016 after the deployment of the dogs at the seaport, a month after losing his reelection bid to Golez.
Golez could not be reached for comment as of this writing.
Pinaga and Belmonte were charged yesterday with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 (selling and possession of illegal drugs).
They were supposed to take a Negros Occidental-bound roll on, roll off (roro) ship at the Dumangas port but were caught by policemen in a buy-bust operation.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Region 6 disclosed as early 2014 that drug traffickers found roro ships at the Dumangas port convenient in transporting illegal drugs.
Roro ships are sea vessels designed to carry wheeled cargo such as cars, trucks and buses driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using a platform vehicle.
But the roro has not only made the transport of goods easier; those into illegal drugs were also taking advantage of this transport system, according to PDEA.
Pinaga and Belmonte were not the first drug suspects to be caught using the roro. In Jan. 6, 2016 the police seized a kilo of shabu then worth P6 million from a man and a woman who traveled to Iloilo from Luzon via the roro system. From Metro Manila, they proceeded to Caticlan and from there went straight to San Joaquin, Iloilo where the shabu was seized.
Jekerie Sepi, 38, was from Barangay Bakhaw, Mandurriao, Iloilo City while companion Resmia Mustapa, 39, was from Barangay Culiat, Quezon City.
The roro system, also called the Philippine Nautical Highway System, is an integrated network of highway and vehicular ferry routes. It is a system of roads and ports developed by the then Arroyo government to connect the major islands of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
The P18-million shabu seized from Pinaga and Belmonte on Sunday night was so far the biggest shabu confiscation in a single antidrug operation in Western Visayas.
The suspects got the shabu from Batangas, according to IPPO’s Tayaba.
From what the police so far gathered, the suspects picked up the shabu in Batangas on Friday, Jan. 26. From there, they boarded a roro ship bound for Caticlan in Malay, Aklan.
From Malay, the suspects rented a vehicle and proceeded to Dumangas, Iloilo.
The 919-kilometer roro nautical highway was opened to the public on April 12, 2003 as the “Strong Republic Nautical Highway.” Its route covers the provinces and cities of the following:
* Luzon – Oriental Mindoro, Tagaytay City (Cavite), Marinduque, Romblon, and Batangas City
* Visayas – Aklan, Antique, Iloilo, Capiz, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, Bohol, Cebu, Guimaras, and Siquijor, and
* Mindanao – Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Lanao del Norte, and Dapitan City.
This system reduced the previous usual travel time by 17 hours to the different key cities, enhancing the accessibility of prime tourist destinations, and minimizing the handling expenses of goods, all over the country.
The segment between Manila and Iloilo runs by road to Batangays City, by ferry to Calapan, by road to Roxas, Oriental Mindoro, by ferry to Caticlan (gateway to Boracay Island located in Malay, Aklan) and onwards by road to Iloilo City./PN
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