‘Probe Cotabato shabu plant’

COTABATO CITY — The iron-fisted mayor of Parang, Maguindanao dared the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) yesterday to prove its worth by looking into reports that a big shabu manufacturing plant exists on Bongo Island, 10 kilometers off the town proper.

Mayor Vivencio Bataga, a retired Army colonel, said his office has been receiving persistent feedback that Bongo Island, which has six barangays, has become a springboard for drug trafficking in their town and surrounding areas in the first district of Maguindanao.

But Parang Vice Mayor Adnan Biruar, who hails from Bongo Island, denied the reports.

"I have been in close contact with barangay officials there so I would easily know if there is such a laboratory there," he said. — John Unson