8 barangay workers positive for drugs

CEBU, Philippines - Eight personnel from Barangay San Nicolas were found positive for illegal use of drugs during a surprise drug test yesterday morning.

That, as two nubain users were arrested Thursday afternoon after their session along Itabora St., barangay Pardo, Cebu City.

The surprise drug test was conducted by the Cebu City Office on Substance Abuse Prevention (Cosap) upon the request of Basak San Nicolas Barangay Captain George Rama.

During the test, 51 workers and personnel including the tanods and garbage collectors were made to submit urine samples. 

Cosap official Jose Felix Lazarte said the drug sample kits could detect methamphetamine hydrochloride, locally known as shabu.

Lazarte said results of the tests will be sent to the Philippine National Police crime lab for confirmation.

“This is only for drug screening subject to confirmation from the PNP Crime Laboratory,” Lazarte said, adding that the result will be released after one week.

If confirmed, Rama said the eight personnel would be fired.

In Pardo, two vials of nubain were confiscated from 42-year-old Roel Graba and his brother Garry, 32.

The arrest was made after the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) 7 received reports from informants about the two.

Roel denied the allegations and said he was surprised with the arrest.

“Dugay nami wala mamaligya ana kay kahibaw mi nga illegal, sa CIB (City Intelligence Branch) pa sauna,” he said. (It’s been a long time since we stopped selling that because we know the authorities would be after us.)

According to Garry, they were near Kingsmen tailoring when the operatives arrested them.

PDEA 7 Director Adrian Alvariño said that the two still had injection markings in their left arms, evidence that they are nubain users.

The arrest was the first one for nubain since this was re-classified as a dangerous drug.

Another drug suspect, Armand Regner of barangay Carreta, was also arrested by the PDEA operatives after he was caught allegedly selling shabu at the back of the Carreta Elementary School.

The arrest was made four hours after the arrest of the two suspects in Pardo.

Confiscated from Regner were 32 packs of shabu amounting to almost P10,000, six disposable lighters, drug paraphernalia, P400 buy-bust money and P310 cash.

Regner was caught in the act selling and guarding a drug den where students and young professionals have pot sessions.

Alvariño said that the targets of the suspect are students of the nearby school.

Alvariño added that they even captured the sessions inside the drug den with their video camera. (FREEMAN)