2 caught selling marijuana to grade schoolers

MANILA, Philippines - A man and a 17-year-old boy were arrested Wednesday night for allegedly selling marijuana to students at a public elementary school in Valenzuela City, police said yesterday.

Ross Edward Ocampo, 25, and his companion were caught during a drug bust in a billiard hall in front of the Pinalag (Annex) Elementary School in Barangay Malinta.

Chief Inspector Allan Ruba, the city police anti-narcotics unit chief, said 65 sachets of dried marijuana leaves were seized from Ocampo and the boy was collared while still holding juice drink boxes that contained marijuana bricks.

He said most of the marijuana seized in the drug bust, which has a street value of approximately P20,000, “were stashed in the ceiling of the billiard hall.”

Ruba told The STAR yesterday that “both suspects would be charged, for under the anti-narcotics law when the offender is already 15 years old he is no longer exempted from criminal liability.”

The Juvenile Justice Act of 2006 protects children 17 years old and below from criminal prosecution, but Ruba said it is different in an illegal drug case.

He said since the suspects were arrested in a buy-bust operation, their case is without bail “regardless of the quantity of the illegal drugs confiscated from them.”

The Station Anti-Illegal Drugs operatives led by Ruba raided the billiard hall at around 9 p.m. after their surveillance operation confirmed the rampant selling of marijuana in the area.

Ruba said their office received mounting complaints from parents that their children stole their valuables in exchange for marijuana, which they could purchase for P50 to P100 a sachet.

According to witnesses, suspicious-looking men were seen peddling the drug to schoolchildren.

Ruba said the teenager is being held at a detention cell of the Valenzuela City police, separate from adult offenders.