Ilonggos figure in Laguna drug-kidnap incident

ILOILO City – A police officer with a suspected participation in the kidnapping of a high-value drug personality in San Pablo City, Laguna was also being linked to a detained Ilonggo suspected drug lord operating from behind bars.

Senior Superintendent Glenn Dumlao, chief of the Philippine National Police-Anti Kidnapping Group (PNP-AKG), said Senior Police Officer 2 Leo Pamonag was the right-hand man of Ricky Barrios, the suspected drug lord presently detained at the Quezon provincial jail.

Pamonag and Barrios were both believed to be from Passi City, Iloilo province.

The Pamonag-Barrios connection was uncovered following the arrest of the driver of the Isuzu Sportivo used by kidnappers in abducting another suspected drug lord, Ronald Arguelles.

Arguelles was allegedly in a turf war over drug sales with Barrios.

Police suspected it was Pamonag who supplied camouflage uniforms to the kidnappers, who pretended to be members of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and demanded P800,000 from Arguelles in exchange for the supposed dropping of drug charges filed against the latter.

A rescue operation by the PNP-AKG and elements of the Laguna police resulted in a firefight at Maharlika Highway, San Pablo City on Tuesday morning and ended with the death of five suspected kidnappers.

The Laguna police identified the slain suspects as Juan Vicente Singabor who wore a police uniform with a patch pretending to be a certain Police Officer 2 Rebadulla and Jairo Olegario a.k.a Police Officer 3 Dizon (both from Sauyo Road, Novaliches Quezon City but believed to be from Passi City); Kent Padernal Lim; Marcelino Sicam a.k.a. Daluz (believed to be from Antique); and Simplicio Parreño who was believed to be from Barangay Dacal, San Enrique, Iloilo.

According to Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) director Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, Barios was a former member of a gun-for-hire group in northern Iloilo and had three pending arrest warrants for criminal cases (robbery, illegal possession of firearm and explosives) in Passi City way back in 2011.

Barrios left for Quezon province where he was arrested for yet another case (murder) in 2013, said Tayaba.

“But we have no record linking him to illegal drugs,” said Tayaba.

Now that the IPPO knew Barrios was in the Quezon provincial jail, Tayaba said the suspect’s pending arrest warrants would be served to him.

According to PNP-AKG’s chief Senior Superintendent Dumlao, Barrios’ drug group would also kidnap well-off personalities then demand ransom (either money or properties to include houses, cars and lands). (With a report from the Philippine News Agency/PN)

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