Ermita SK chairman nabbed for drugs

Contrary to the oath he made on herding positively fellow youths into becoming active partners in community and nation building, the Sangguniang Kabataan chairman of barangay Ermita, Cebu City was arrested in a buy-bust operation the other night.

Police arrested Carlo Magno Tude, 21, the incumbent SK chairman of Ermita along with his 14-year-old female househelp after the two were caught in the act selling a pack of suspected shabu to a police poseur buyer.

PO2 Joel Cunan along with a police informer reportedly bought a pack of shabu worth P200 from the store owned by Carlo Magno's mother, identified only as a certain "Bebot", at the interior portion of Ermita.

According to raiding team leader SPO1 Filomeno Mendaros of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch of the Cebu City Police Office, the minor who tended the "sari-sari" (variety) store received the marked money from Cunan.

The minor reportedly took a pack of suspected shabu from an "estante" (glass casing) normally used by stores to display goods/items, and then handed the proceeds over to Tude.

Cunan and other policemen deployed in the area then moved to arrest the two, but some residents reportedly started hurling empty bottles of beer at the raiding team, prompting Cunan to fire warning shots. The CIIB then called the Crime Suppression Unit for assistance.

Police recovered eight more packs of suspected shabu from the glass casing where proceeds of the illegal drug trade were believed kept.

Mendaros told The FREEMAN that they already conducted a test buy at said target store last Friday night. The test yielded positive results that prompted them to suspect Tude, despite his SK chairmanship in Ermita, is indeed involved in the illegal drug trade.

Last August 1 this year, Tude's mother Bebot became the subject of a buy-bust operation of the CIIB team led by PO3 Cesar Pandong. But because of the intervention made by Tude and some neighbors, Bebot was able to elude arrest. Policemen were only able to seize a pack of shabu from that transaction.

A case of illegal drug pushing was already filed against Bebot and obstruction of justice was slapped on Tude after that raid.

Tude when interviewed by The FREEMAN vehemently denied of any involvement in the illegal drug trade claiming he is a victim of a frame-up done by police whom he suspected were harboring grudges against him after the August 1 incident.

Meanwhile, the minor suspect who is from Bohol told reporters she was forced by Bebot to keep watch of the illegal drugs in the store or she will be sent away.

Police said that drug users can casually buy illegal drugs at said store as easy as purchasing ordinary goods.

Mendaros said that Bebot who is still at large is a level-two drug pusher who can dispose of 200 grams to a kilo per week. - Edwin Ian Melecio/MEEV