Suspected pusher falls in Ermita

The Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch yesterday arrested a bigtime drug pusher in sitio Bato, barangay Ermita, after they found seven small sachets, one big plastic and two medium size packs of suspected shabu from his house.

Police also seized several drug paraphernalia and repacking kits on Glen Esperat and P75,940.00 cash believed to be drug money.

The police received reports about Esperat's operation in the area prompting them to get a search warrant from Regional Trial Court Branch 13 vice-executive judge Meinrado Paredes for violation of the Republic Act 9165.

Meanwhile, Carbon police station chief Eliseo Castronuevo whose, jurisdiction includes Ermita where several gambling machines where confiscated recently, finally sent his explanation to the Cebu City Police Office.

Castronuevo also submitted a report of their accomplishments against illegal gambling in their area of jurisdiction covering barangays Ermita and Pahina Central, reporting 20 gambling machines seized from the interior sitios of Ermita, Bato, Baho and inside the Carbon public market.

Castronuevo claimed he has done everything in his power to eradicate illegal gambling machines and other criminal activities in his area of responsibility with only a handful of personnel.

He said his manpower shortage forced him to divide his men between raids against illegal gambling, street crime prevention and other programs of the station.

He also said the barangay officials do not cooperate with them.

"The difficulty lies with the fact that even the barangay official who is most familiar with the locality cannot even coordinate, guide, and facilitate the law enforcement actions of the police...the political will to eradicate the illegal gambling is not with the law enforcement units but with the basic political unit in the community. This is not to blame whoever is to blame in the present incident but this is only to emphasize a fact that had been the stumbling block in our crusade against illegal gambling and even illegal drugs," Castronuevo explained in his report.

Based on the accomplishment report the last operation the Carbon police conducted was last September 3 at an interior portion of sitio Baho of the said barangay that led to the confiscation of one video karera machine.

Last October 22, the CIIB raided two sitios of the same barangay and confiscated 25 gambling machines and arrested eleven people caught gambling with these machines. They also arrested two suspected drug pushers and a man with a gun.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña was upset upon learning of the incident and warned barangay captain Felicisimo Rupinta about it to do something.

Meanwhile, a woman and a man were arrested last Friday afternoon at the interior part of barangay Calamba after CIIB policemen led by PO3 Cesar Pandong found five packs of suspected shabu and drug paraphernalia on them.

Police identified them as Ruben Merenillo, 30, who was found with drug paraphernalia and Lowella Navales, 20, who was found with the suspected shabu. - Edwin Ian Melecio