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[av_heading heading=’What happened to Task Force Puerto? ‘ 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 GLENDA S. TAYONA
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February 3, 2018
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ILOILO City – Is Task Force Puerto that the local government of Dumangas, Iloilo formed to bolster the porous security of the municipality’s seaport in Barangay Sapao functioning as it should?
Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. is seeking a meeting with the local government of Dumangas and officials of agencies making up Task Force Puerto.
The interagency task force was launched in Nov. 25, 2015 after more than a year of planning. But the recent arrest two suspected drug couriers and the confiscation of their shabu worth P18 million raised questions on the task force’s work.
The task force is made up of the following: Dumangas police station, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Regional Maritime Office 6, Highway Patrol Group, Land Transportation Office, Philippine Coast Guard, Bureau of Customs, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Labor and Employment.
“I’m seeking a meeting with them. This will happen next week,” said Defensor.
Task Force Puerto was a brainchild of then Dumangas mayor Rolando Distura. In June 2016 before stepping down from office, he deployed at the Port of Dumangas five Belgian Malinois dogs trained to detect illegal drugs and explosives.
Are these dogs still posted at the seaport?
Defensor also wants to know how many policemen are guarding the port.
Incumbent Dumangas mayor Ronaldo Golez recently disclosed that only a few police officers were stationed at the seaport.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Region 6 disclosed as early 2014 that drug traffickers found roll on, roll off (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.
On Jan. 28, Negros Occidental-bound Jose Alberto Pinaga and Maebelle Belmonte were caught with a kilo of shabu in a buy-bust operation in Barangay Sapao before they could take a roro ship.
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.
Pinaga and Belmonte told investigators they transported the shabu from Batangas to Panay Island via roro./PN
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