ILOILO City – How do you solve a problem like uncooperative barangay officials?
Barangay officials of Bakhaw, Mandurriao district refused to serve as witnesses during an inventory of items seized in a recent antidrug buy-bust operation, according to Superintendent Rogen Morales, chief of Iloilo City Police Office’s City Drug Enforcement Unit (CDEU).
“Barangay officials have to be reminded that serving as witnesses is a responsibility as stated in a Dangerous Drugs Board resolution,” said Atty. Ferdinand Panes, chief of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Iloilo City.
Morales wrote a letter complaint to the DILG following a June 21 CDEU buy-bust operation in Barangay Bakhaw.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) classified Barangay Bakhaw a haven of illegal drugs.
Panes said barangay officials of Bakhaw would be asked to explain.
He also vowed to bring this matter the attention of the Iloilo City Anti-illegal Drug Abuse Council and City Peace and Order Council.
Newly reelected Bakhaw barangay captain Remia Prevendido Gregori, sister of drug lord Richard Prevendido, was shot to death by still unidentified armed men on June 24 in San Joaquin town, Iloilo three days after the CDEU operation in Bakhaw.
Yesterday, Gregori was buried at Forest Lake Memorial Park in Mandurriao district.
“Indi lang ‘ta guro magtutok gid specific sa Bakhaw kundi sa tanan. The Iloilo City Anti-illegal Drug Abuse Council and City Peace and Order Council may be releasing resolutions reminding barangay officials of their tasks during police and PDEA operation.
Panes, however, said it is the complainant – in this recent case, the CDEU – that should initiate the filing of appropriate administrative charges.
“Kay sila ang nag-operate, ang ebidensya ara sa ila,” said Panes.
The Sangguniang Panlungsod previously investigated Gregori for alleged links to illegal drugs.
Following her reelection on May 14, Gregori was thankful to the people of Barangay Bakhaw “kay sa gihapon ara ang spagsalig nila sa akon bisan ano nga issue (because they continue to trust me despite the issues I faced).”
Six weeks after, she was killed.
PDEA described Gregori’s Barangay Bakhaw as the go-to place of drug pushers and users but the barangay captain shrugged off the tag.
“Ari tawhay na di amon barangay. Dugay na (Our barangay has always been peaceful),” she insisted./PN
