Masbate apartment yields shabu chemicals, equipment

LEGAZPI CITY – Shabu chemicals, equipment and paraphernalia were seized during a raid on an abandoned apartment in Barangay Nursery, Masbate City last Thursday, an officer of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said.

Chief Inspector Joven Parcon, PDEA-Bicol officer-in-charge, said the raid was prompted by a complaint about foul odor emanating from the unit at Kimberly apartment.

Parcon said two men linked to the shabu lab – Taiwanese national Chin Cui Feng, alias Jeffrey Villagas, and Ronald Gabriel, alias Tandodoy – were not around when the authorities, armed with a search warrant issued by Judge Manuel Sese of the Masbate City Regional Trial Court Branch 45, arrived.

Laboratory tests showed that the residues taken from the apartment were shabu.

Among those seized were two gallons of chemicals with Chinese markings, five glass syringes, three improvised tooters, glass stirring rods, a spatula, tin cans with Chinese markings, 680 grams of chemicals placed inside a nata de coco jar, glass beakers, filtering flasks, two kilograms of chemicals with markings “Super Chlor,” masks, googles, thermometers, a 180-milliliter glass beaker, one can of crystalline substance with Chinese markings, three aluminum foils, and disposable lighters.

Parcon said charges are now being readied against the two suspects, now both the subject of a manhunt.

Last Sept. 13, a combined team of PDEA and the National Bureau of Investigation swooped down on the residence of Siegfredo Obias Jr. at Villagrande Homes Subdivision in Naga City and seized 6.69 grams of shabu, marijuana leaves, a 9-mm Glock handgun, 11 caliber .45 bullets, and shabu paraphernalia.

Eleven people were arrested during the raid, including Gilberto Tapel, a former jail warden in Camarines Sur.

“We have initiated inquest proceedings against the suspects at the Naga City prosecutor’s office for violation of Republic Act 9165,” Parcon said.

As part of the intensified effort against illegal drugs, one of the top 10 shabu pushers in Sorsogon City, a certain Reynado Chua, 42, was arrested last Sept. 15.