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[av_heading heading=’Wake up, Mayor Onal Golez!’ 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 LUIS BUENAFLOR JR.
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February 2, 2018
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IT SEEMS that Dumangas, Iloilo mayor Ronaldo “Onal” Golez was caught with his drawers down and it’s not pretty.
Before you have visions of the handsome former singer-turned-politician walking around Dumangas full Monty minus his drawers, moi is sorry to disappoint you; that’s not exactly what happened but it will seem like it, probably worst.
In all likelihood Mayor “Onal” would choose the lesser embarrassment of being caught with his drawers down than this “major … major” faux pas.
That Mayor “Onal” Golez was sleeping on the job is an understatement as the sleepy town of Dumangas made the headlines not because of something progressive and positive, rather the extreme opposite.
Who would have thought that Dumangas will take the place of “I Am Iloilo City” as the “most shabu-lized?” In fact it probably is literally.
So what made Dumangas suddenly figure prominently in the ongoing “drug wars?”
Let’s start with these excerpts from the Jan. 30 issue of Panay News:
P18-M SHABU HAUL
ILOILO City – A kilo of shabu worth P18 million was seized from a couple in Barangay Sapao, Dumangas, Iloilo on Sunday night – so far the biggest shabu confiscation in a single antidrug operation in Western Visayas.
The suspects got the shabu from Batangas and would have brought it to Negros Occidental had they successfully boarded a roll on, roll off ship at the seaport of Dumangas.
“But nagbenta pa sila ng droga, this was why we were able to catch them,” said Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, director of the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO).
There was never this big a haul of shabu in the region’s history, added Tayaba.
The 32-year-old Jose Alberto Pinaga and 30-year-old girlfriend Maebelle Belmonte were no ordinary drug pushers; they were drug couriers, according to the police director.
From what the police have so far gathered, the suspects picked up the shabu in Batangas on Friday, Jan. 26. From there, they boarded a roll on, roll off ship bound for Caticlan in Malay, Aklan.
From Malay, the suspects rented a vehicle for Dumangas, Iloilo.
Tayaba said the suspects told investigators this was supposedly their third delivery of shabu to a Negros-based drug syndicate; the first was made in Dec. 22, 2017 and the second was early this month.
The couple claimed they were paid P50,000 for each delivery.
“The first two deliveries were each one kilo of shabu, too. Amo na kadaku,” said Tayaba.
***
So there you go, the roro port of Dumangas has become the transient point for the entry of illegal drugs to Negros and other parts of Region 6. Take note that this is not the first time illegal drugs passed through the port of Dumangas and it would seem odd that with all the attention on stopping the illegal drug trade, a shipment this big would pass seemingly unnoticed right under the very nose of the authorities.
There’s more, here are excerpts from the Jan. 31 issue of Panay News:
DRUGS MOVE THRU RORO
ILOILO City – The seizure of P18-million worth of shabu in Dumangas, Iloilo has shown that the municipality’s seaport remains a transhipment 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.
***
What happened in the port of Dumangas is not a fluke. It seems to be a regular thing. The funny thing is that there are already measures in place to address this problem yet the illegal drugs got through. Well, some of them. If not for the vigilance of the police this latest shipment would probably be on the streets by now.
So Mayor “Onal” Golez, what happened to “Task Force Puerto”?
What about the imported bomb-sniffing Malinois dogs? Are they still around or they’re already somebody’s pet?
It is common knowledge that “I Am Iloilo City’s” Former World Mayor No. 5 Jed Mabilog was never involved in the illegal drugs trade. But by turning a blind eye and saying that “the drug problem is not alarming”, the city got the tag “most shabu-lized.”
Mayor “Onal” Golez, wake up before Dumangas becomes the next “bedrock of drugs!” (brotherlouie16@gmail.com)/PN
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